A Glassell Park church that was severely damaged after a brush fire last week was vandalized with graffiti Monday night.
A brush fire that started off the Glendale (2) Freeway ripped through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on July 7, causing part of the roof to collapse. Sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning, the side of the church was vandalized with graffiti.
James Jenks, who was the bishop of the church at the time it was built and dedicated, said the vandalism after the fire was like "rubbing salt in the wound."
"We haven't recovered from having lost our building, our chapel, our place of worship, and now we see this being done to our building," Jenks said.
Jenks said police told him the graffiti was not a hate crime, but likely taggers who were coming through the area and saw an opportunity to practice graffiti, without considering the building was a place of worship. He added that the church was trying to get structural engineers to come to check the integrity of the building.
