Prosecutor: Morris County church vandalism not a bias crime

The vandalism at five Morristown-area churches with predominantly black congregations was not motivated by bias, the Morris County Prosecutor said in a prepared statement Sunday evening.

The damage was allegedly caused by one man, who was a former congregant of one of the churches, Fredric M. Knapp, the Morris County prosecutor, said.

“As a result of the investigation, no evidence was obtained that would indicate this was a bias incident which legally requires purpose to intimidate a person or group based upon their protected class,” Knapp said.

Zuri C. Towns, 45, of Morristown was arrested and charged with four fourth degree counts of criminal mischief, and one third degree count of criminal mischief.

On Sunday morning, police officers were stationed Sunday outside five Morristown-area churches in response to the vandalism that was initially being investigated as a possible bias crime because of the churches congregations.

In an earlier statement, Knapp had said vandalism was limited to property damage including a broken stained-glass window and broken or damaged exterior signs. The damage and the apparent targeting of black churches caused waves of concern throughout the clergy and congregants through the weekend.

"That they are all African-American churches causes an immediate sense of outrage in people of faith throughout Morris County, and especially for us as religious leaders," said the Rev. Cynthia L. Black, rector of the Church of the Redeemer on South Street in Morristown and president of the Morris Area Clergy Council.

Knapp did not specify the damage to individual churches, but a stop at each of the churches Sunday showed that four sustained damage to their signs that list hours of worship. At the Church of God In Christ of All Saints a stained-glass window in a door was smashed.

"We take this extremely seriously and we'll get to the bottom of it," Morristown Mayor Timothy Dougherty said outside Church of God on Sunday morning. "Every church has a police presence ordered by the police chief."

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The churches damaged by vandalism in Morristown were the Church of God in Christ for All Saints on Rowe Street, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Spring Street, Calvary Baptist Church on Martin Luther King Avenue and Union Baptist Church on Spring Street.

In Morris Township, Morristown Church of Christ on Martin Luther King Avenue was also damaged.

Earlier this month, a Texas gunman, Devin Kelley, 26, shot and killed 26 people at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church in what authroities have said was connected to a domestic dispute.

In September, Emanuel Kidega Samson, 25, allegedly killed one person and wounded seven others in Nashville, left a note referencing the mass shooter, Dylan Roof, according to the Associated Press. Roof, who has been sentenced to death for killing nine people at a Charleston church in 2015, had said he wanted to start a race war.

And synagogues and Jewish community centers throughout the country — including Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly — fielded telephoned bomb threats earlier this year.

"We feel fortunate in that's all that has happened," the Rev. Kenneth Brown, the music minister at Calvary Baptist Church, said referring to the vandalism at the Morristown churches. "No one has come here and harmed anyone physically, so given some of the things that have happened in other places we feel very fortunate thus far this is the extent of what's happened here."

Word about the vandalism spread fast through social media overnight Saturday into Sunday morning and shocked some of the congregants.

“I actually found out about it last night on Facebook … I just came back from New York with my girlfriend and I saw it, and I was like, ‘Wow!’” said Jaylen King, who attended service at Church of God. “I know they said it was like a hate crime. It was still crazy though just hearing that people would try to vandalize these different churches though because from Morristown we kind of know everybody that goes here. Our town is pretty close … Everybody gets along.”

The Rev. Robert Rogers, who is pastor of Church of God said a surveillance recording at the church captured the image of a person, whose race was not obvious, hurling a rock through a stained glass window.

The Morris County Sheriff’s Office distributed a still from the recording that shows what appears to be a man in light blue jeans, a tan winter coat and a maroon hat in a throwing stance.

Rogers said Sunday that the person caught on tape was not known to him. Rogers said the church was holding a funeral Saturday at about 10:30 a.m. when broken glass was spotted around the main door.

Even though Towns' arrest was announced, no information related to the motive for the crime has been released. Knapp said he lived in close proximity to each of the churches and was a former congregant at one of them as a child. Knapp did not identify the church.

Towns made a statement to police confirming his involvement in the incidents and indicating that he acted alone, a news release from Knapp's office said.

Congregants leaving Sunday services expressed mixed emotions about the vandalism. Some said the targeted nature of the vandalism worried or scared them, but others expressed a more charitable view.

“A lot of people have been through worse,” said Tisa Joyner Nance outside of Calvary Baptist. Because we don’t know, again, the circumstances and the context of it, we don’t know what to relate it to so we don’t want to make an assumption or jump to a conclusion that this is about hate when it could have been about something completely different.”

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@GannettNJ.com. Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@GannettNJ.com.

Anyone with information about the crimes is asked to contact the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office Bias Crimes Unit at 973-285-6200, Morristown police at 973-538-2200, or Morris Township police at 973-539-0777. Tips can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers by calling 973-COP-CALL (973-267-2255), or at www.morriscrimestoppers.org.