Harmeet Dhillon to investigate after Long Beach Catholic school vandalized, Virgin Mary statue smashed

Vandals ransacked the campus of a Long Beach Catholic school overnight Sunday, defacing and destroying religious statues, among them images of the Virgin Mary, and causing significant damage to school property.

Staff at the Holy Innocents School discovered the damage on Monday morning, and now the federal government is getting involved in the investigation. Principal Cyril Cruz told KTLA, “We’re praying for protection of our school, and we just want them to feel safe. But it’s like, this is what happens?”

In response to the incident, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon posted on X that the Justice Department's Civil Rights division would open an investigation into what she described as “this awful crime,” and she tagged Attorney General Pam Bondi in the post.

Some of the damaged statues were valued at tens of thousands of dollars, while other items were described as irreplaceable due to their religious significance and history. Tony Tripp, the school’s director of advancement, said intruders appeared to force open closets, pull items out, and tear equipment from the walls. He told the outlet, “The sound equipment and that sort of thing was ripped out of the wall. Any closet that was there, everything was pulled out.”

“What was not to be expected is the sanctuary part,” Tripp added. “We have a large statue of Mary that was pushed down and destroyed. We had the tabernacle, the gold tabernacle where our Lord is kept here; they tried to break that open to get the host out of there.”

“I want to know why you could do this to kids,” Cruz said. “What kind of heart do you have to do this?”

Eleventh-grader Catherine Cruz told KTLA, “Our message right now is truly prayer. They are still created by God, and so we still want to love them. Even though they did a terrible thing, we still want to pray for them.”

A GoFundMe has been established to help restore the campus, of which over $74,000 of the $100,000 goal has already been raised as of Tuesday morning, and donors can also contribute directly to the school to support recovery efforts.