The New York Police Department is investigating the destruction of a Virgin Mary statue outside St Rita Roman Catholic Church in Long Island City, New York, as a possible hate crime. Surveillance footage released by the Diocese of Brooklyn shows a masked man climbing over a fence before repeatedly striking the statue with a hammer until it broke apart, prompting concern from local Catholic officials about a targeted attack on the church.

The incident was captured on camera and the footage has been shared publicly by the Diocese of Brooklyn to help identify the suspect, who was masked throughout and scaled a fence to reach the statue. Investigators are treating the act as a potential bias-motivated crime, though no arrests had been confirmed at the time of reporting.