A teenager has been charged after a Virginia mosque’s surveillance camera caught him smashing the glass of a front door.
Roanoke Police Capt. Eric Charles said a 16-year-old boy was charged with property damage. Police are not releasing his name because he is a juvenile.
Officers responded to Masjid An-Nur about 1 a.m., July 23, to investigate a report of vandalism.
A surveillance camera captured two juveniles breaking glass in one of the front doors with a stick. Charges have not been filed against the second teen.
Mosque leaders declined to talk about the incident, but local television stations have reported recently that the mosque has faced harassment over the past year. Charles, however, said there have been “no consistent reports of vandalism” or “history of police calls” at the mosque.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) urged police to consider a possible bias motive for the crime.
“We welcome the felony charge in this case and hope the full force of the law will be brought against both suspects for allegedly targeting a house of worship,” Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s national communications director, said in a statement. “Because of the history of hate incidents faced by worshipers at the mosque, we urge state and federal law enforcement authorities to consider a possible bias motive for the crime.”