August 6, 2026

A masked man was caught on camera climbing a fence outside St. Rita Roman Catholic Church in Long Island City and smashing a Virgin Mary statue with a hammer in a predawn attack now under NYPD review as a possible hate crime. Diocese officials say it was the fourth vandalism strike on the parish since 2024, a bitter pattern that has church leaders warning this is no random act but an escalating assault on a Catholic community.

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