{"id":85208,"date":"2026-08-06T08:30:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T12:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=85208"},"modified":"2026-08-06T08:30:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T12:30:03","slug":"masked-man-caught-on-camera-smashing-virgin-mary-statue-with-a-hammer-outside-nyc-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/masked-man-caught-on-camera-smashing-virgin-mary-statue-with-a-hammer-outside-nyc-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Masked Man Caught On Camera Smashing Virgin Mary Statue With A Hammer Outside NYC Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From <em>Fox News:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1200\/675\/masked-man-church-courtyard-surveillance.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1\" alt=\"Masked man in dark shirt jumps over fence into church courtyard.\" width=\"469\" height=\"264\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\" data-layout-index=\"5\">The New York Police Department (NYPD) is investigating the destruction of a Virgin Mary statue outside\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/religion\/roman-catholic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_us_article_main-content_article-body_6_1\">St. Rita Roman Catholic Church<\/a>\u00a0in Long Island City as a possible hate crime after a man climbed over a fence and repeatedly smashed it down using a hammer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\" data-layout-index=\"5\">In surveillance video released by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/faith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_us_article_main-content_article-body_6_2\">the Diocese of Brooklyn<\/a>, the masked man violently hits the statue outside the church in what Catholic officials say is the latest in a string of attacks targeting the parish. In a press release, church officials said it is the fourth reported\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/terror\/vandalism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_us_article_main-content_article-body_6_3\">vandalism<\/a>\u00a0incident targeting the parish since 2024, and the New York City Police Department is investigating the latest vandalism as a possible hate crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Fox News: The New York Police Department (NYPD) is investigating the destruction of a Virgin Mary statue outside\u00a0St. Rita.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-85208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85210,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85208\/revisions\/85210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}