Police arrested a woman who they said vandalized a church in southwest Miami-Dade late Saturday night.
Alfa Illescas, 44, was charged with one count of criminal mischief on a church or place of worship.
According to Miami-Dade Police, officers arrived at Saint Timothy Catholic Church, located at 5400 Southwest 102 Avenue, after several parishioners called to report graffiti on the church walls and trash throughout the church's courtyard.
According to police, several unknown suspects entered the church and proceeded to graffiti the walls, posting words like ‘perverts’ and ‘pigs.’
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Surveillance footage showed a person, later identified as Illescas, walking through the school and spray painting the walls along with various other areas. She was also seen kicking over trash bins and breaking parts of an alter of a saint in front of the church.
Police said the footage helped them identify Illescas as the suspect. According to detectives, when they found her at her home, she was wearing the same clothes she had on while she vandalized the school.
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The ARchdiocese of Miami said school parents arrived Sunday morning to help clean the graffiti.
“I'm concerned but I don't think I'm surprised," said Ana Fernandez, whose children graduated from the school "Because Christians are under attack and you see it all over the world.”
"This is a tragedy, that a sacred place like a Catholic school and church property is vandalized. It's a hate crime," the Archdiocese of Miami said in an official statement.
