A suspect caught on surveillance video tore a light fixture off the front of a 150-year-old Carroll Gardens church, hurled it into the street, and ran off — and now the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force wants to know who did it. The vandalism happened just after 9:30 p.m. on August 20 outside Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary & St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church at 125 Summit St., according to detectives.
Police released the surveillance footage Sunday, roughly a month after the incident, in hopes that someone recognizes the person seen ripping the fixture from the building, according to News12 New York. The suspect then tossed the fixture into the street before fleeing, per the outlet's report. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the case.
A Landmark With a Painful History of Targeting
The church at the center of this case is no ordinary parish building. Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary & St. Stephen was formed in 1941 through the merger of two older congregations — St. Stephen's Parish, founded in 1866, and Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, established in 1882 as Brooklyn's first Italian national parish. The merger happened because Sacred Hearts' original church building was demolished in the early 1940s to make way for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, forcing the two congregations to consolidate at the Summit Street site.
The current building itself carries even deeper roots. It was designed by prominent Irish-born architect Patrick Keely and dedicated in 1875, and its neo-Gothic spire once served as an illuminated nighttime navigational beacon guiding ships into New York Bay, according to the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Keely was a prolific 19th-century church architect responsible for hundreds of Catholic buildings up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
Not the Parish's First Brush With Anti-Religious Vandalism
This is not the first time the Carroll Street exterior of this parish has been targeted. In January 2017, vandals spray-painted the phrase built on genocide across the church's exterior sign — while parishioners were gathered inside for Sunday morning Mass, according to The Tablet.
The August fixture incident also lands amid a string of similar attacks reported across Brooklyn and Queens parishes this year. The Diocese of Brooklyn, which oversees Catholic parishes in both Kings and Queens counties, reported a hammer attack on a Blessed Mother statue at St. Rita Church in August 2026, following anti-Christian threats etched into doors at St. Fortunata Church the month before, per the diocese.
What the Law Says About Bias Crimes at Houses of Worship
Under New York Penal Law § 240.31, intentionally damaging property used primarily for religious purposes in excess of $50 with bias motivation is classified as aggravated harassment in the first degree — a Class E felony, according to New York State's official legislative database. Separate felony criminal mischief charges can also apply if intentional property damage exceeds $250 or $1,500 thresholds under other sections of the penal code.
Before any incident is formally labeled a hate crime, the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force evaluates it in consultation with the department's Legal Bureau to determine whether it meets state statutory criteria, per a report from NEPYORK. Complaints remain under investigation while that legal and bias review is conducted. NYPD data from the first half of 2026 recorded 325 confirmed hate crime complaints citywide, with religious bias remaining a primary focus of task force reviews, according to JNS.
Property Damage Drives Statewide Hate Crime Numbers
The Carroll Gardens case fits a pattern that shows up clearly in statewide data. Criminal mischief accounted for 42% of all 989 reported hate crime incidents across New York in 2024, making it the single largest category, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services' 2024 Hate Crime Annual Report. Anti-religious bias motivations remained among the leading drivers of that property-related category.
A separate report from the New York State Comptroller found that religious bias motivated roughly half of all hate crimes statewide, with total reported incidents surging 69% since 2019 to a record high of 1,089 in 2023, as reported by Catholic New York. People targeted for their religious beliefs represented the largest category of bias-crime victims in the state, the report found.
How to Help Investigators
Detectives are urging anyone with information about the Carroll Gardens vandalism to contact the NYPD Crime Stoppers hotline. Tipsters can call 1-800-577-TIPS.
