Photo from Bridgeport Police Department

Police in Bridgeport, Connecticut are looking for the person responsible for spray painting Satanic symbols on outdoor statuary and the walls of St. Andrew Academy late last week.

NBCConnecticut.com is reporting on the hate crime which was discovered last Friday morning by St. Andrew’s principal Maria O’Neill when she arrived to find pentagrams, 666, and upside-down crosses painted in red spray paint across an outdoor altar and the walls of the school.

“It’s really difficult to understand where this kind of hate comes from,” O’Neill said.

She immediately tried to steer arriving school buses away from the scene to shield the children while teachers struggled to answer questions from those students who saw the desecration.

The community reacted with outrage and immediately went to work cleaning up the mess, which was almost completely gone by the time classes ended that day.

“Now is the time that we pull together, that we work together and show that we have the faith to get us through this,” Councilwoman Michelle Lyons said.

“Hate is always a concern and if hate is not taken care of immediately, it has a tendency to grow,” State Representative Charlie Stallworth said.

Meanwhile, police went from door to door asking neighbors if they had any surveillance video that might help the investigation. Although the school does not have video at the moment, they plan to get it as soon as possible.

“If anyone knows anything, please come forward. We would like to help whoever did this,” O’Neill said.

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