Gwinnett Police investigate church vandalism
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - Vandals struck a Lawrenceville church just hours before Sunday services and police hope surveillance video could help lead them to the criminals.
According to Gwinnett Police, surveillance cameras at the Lawrenceville campus of 12 Stone Church captured two people walking toward the building around 4:00 a.m. Sunday.
The pair smashed the outside window panes of the Starbucks Cafe located inside the church and spray painted graffiti on the outside of the building reading, "woe to you who are rich." They also left behind flyers describing their actions as an effort to "[drive] the businessmen out of the temple."
"It's clear from the graffiti that they have an issue with the church and it's unfortunate that they wouldn't just decide to take that up with the administration at the church that they would resort to criminal activity and property damage," said Gwinnett Police Corporal Deon Washington.
Someone emailed FOX 5 to claim responsibility for the vandalism.
"In the early hours of Sunday morning, we went to our church before our brothers and
sisters would arrive for worship," the person wrote. "Following Jesus' example, we attacked the place made for buying and selling in our Father's house - smashing out all its windows. We left hundreds of copies of a letter we wrote to the church."
Church leadership said they will not allow vandalism to distract them from their mission of serving the faith community.
"We've had vandalism at some of our campuses before and it turned out to be some wayward youth," said Norwood Davis, 12 Stone's chief financial officer. "This instance is under investigation, but you know, we choose really to work to elevate things for good and be a force for good in our community and not to elevate things that can be a distraction or disruptive."
Gwinnett Police ask anyone with information about this case to contact police.