A Detroit-area church is cleaning up after vandals spray-painted racist graffiti on the building hours before Sunday services were scheduled to start.
The Greater New Life Church in Roseville was covered in swastikas, and other racist markings over the weekend, the Detroit Free Press reported.
The church’s pastor, Darnell Moore left the church grounds on Saturday (October 23) around 10 p.m. only to return 12 hours later to find the church vandalized. A neighbor approached Moore, he said, and told him he had to “see what was done to the building.” That’s when Moore walked around and saw the graffiti and the word “die.”
Police are investigating the incident, but don’t have any leads, the outlet reported. They’re checking neighbor’s video camera footage in an attempt to get a glimpse of who may be behind the graffiti, which also might have been signed by the vandals.
The report indicates that the initials JDS were left on the building and authorities said, “no one knows what that means.”
The church –– which has a majority Black congregation –– “has not had any problems with anybody,” Roseville Police Deputy Chief Mitch Berlin told the Free Press.
Moore says the vandalism appears to be a hate crime, but said there could be other motives.
“When they put signs up like that, that’s what comes to your mind,” he said, adding that church would carry on as it had after a 2014 fire destroyed the building. Moore confirmed plans are in the works to cover up the markings within the week.
“I don’t know who did this,” Moore said, “But it’s not going to stop us.”
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