Police are searching for a suspect who carved anti-religious hate messages on cars in a parking lot at the University of California Davis on Saturday.

Eleven cars were vandalized, among which eight had their tires slashed and five were keyed with hateful messages, CBS Sacramento reports, adding that police are looking for “a man in his mid-20s of average height and weight and was wearing a black hoodie, black pants and had a messenger-style bag.”

The anti-religious vandalism, which police are investigating as a hate crime, comes on the heels of a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, carried out by a man who ranted against religion online and had a history of mental and emotional problems. It is the second case of anti-religious vandalism at UC Davis this year, after a Jewish fraternity was daubed with swastikas in February following an anti-Israel vote by student leaders.

Local news, including NBC News affiliate KCRA, carried a statement that UC Davis chancellor Linda P. B. Katehi issued in response to the vandalism: “I am deeply troubled and disappointed that the campus community has experienced another incident that included damaged property and, even more grievously, offensive and disparaging slurs.This is conduct most unbecoming and completely against our principles of community,” Katehi said.

Photo: file