Hammer-wielding vandal beheads Virgin Mary statue outside NYC Catholic church

A man wielding a hammer has beheaded a statue of the Virgin Mary outside a Queens, New York church in an act of vandalism. The officials at the house of worship say the latest act is one in a series of vandalism attacks on the church.

Police said that the vandalism took place in the early morning at 1:42 am on Sunday at Rita’s Roman Catholic Church in Dutch Kills. Video showed the incident take place where a suspect dressed in shorts and a t-shirt hopped a fence into the yard of the church.

The suspect then hit the Virgin Mary statue with a hammer, beheading the statue as it fell to the ground. After desecrating the site, the vandal ran off. The incident is now being investigated by the NYPD hate crime unit. This is not the first time there has been vandalism at the same church.

On March 21 earlier this year, a statue of the St. Francis outside the church was vandalized and the sidewalk was defaced with graffiti. At the time, a statue of St. Jude was also cracked by the vandals along with a stained-glass window, according to diocese officials.

In a press release from the Dioceses of Brooklyn, officials said the church has been vandalized a total of four times targeting the church since 2024. No arrests have been made in the incident as of Thursday morning.

"This week, the NYPD also issued a crime stats update and hate crimes are up by 9.4% over the same 7-month period (Jan-July) of last year," John Quaglione, the deputy press secretary for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn said.