Todd Davis

Graffiti Found at Plano Church, Park, Apartments

Police are investigating disturbing graffiti found at a church, a park and an apartment complex in Plano Wednesday morning.

Plano police said an officer was flagged down by a person reporting vandalism at the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church just after 6 a.m.

Upon arrival, Officer David Tilley said images like pentagrams, what appeared to be the numbers 666, and words like "Obey" and "Scum" were found spray-painted on the church.

"i was not angry. I was not upset. I was just very disappointed that someone would choose the lord's house to do such a thing," said Senior Pastor Isiah Joshua.

Tilley said similar graffiti was later found in nearby Haggard Park, the East Side Village apartments, and in several spots near Plano Marine.

"It appears to be anti-religion," said Tilley.

Some of the graffiti also seemed to contain anti-American and political statements; most referencing "Trump."

Pastor Joshua said he's already forgiven the people responsible, but he hopes they're brought to justice.

"I cannot lead this congregation and hold hate and malice on the inside because if i do then the membership will," he said.

The pastor is confident that the church's extensive video surveillance system can yield some strong leads for police.

"This is not exactly the church that you want to vandalize because there are cameras at every buidling inside and outside," he said.

Several volunteers came to the church to help clean the vandalism up and paint over it, and โ€“ along with the help of the afternoon rain โ€“ it was almost completely gone by 4 p.m.

City crews also worked quickly to remove the damage from the park and a crew was spotted washing the paint off of the apartment complex as well.

All of the vandalism happened within just a few blocks of the Plano Police Department and the church is located just across the street.

Officials said new surveillance video cameras were recently added to the church. Tilley said they will investigate the video and others in the area as soon as possible.

"It's tough times right now across our nation and it's something that probably rises to a little bit higher level of concern during these times," he said.

Tilley said the graffiti doesn't appear to be a hate crime, but investigators are considering the possibility.

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