A man in Washington was arrested on Tuesday for vandalizing a Catholic church in Washington state and spraying graffiti all over its walls, less than a week after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Maeve Jacqueline Nota, 31, was recorded smashing one of two doors with a rock in front of a pastoral office at St. Louise Catholic Church in Bellevue before throwing and kicking broken glass into the building, according to surveillance footage.
A woman was praying inside when the vandalism started. She tried to talk to Nota but, scared, ended up locking herself inside the building while he graffitied the wall outside the church.
Nota was then seen in the surveillance video picking up his backpack and leaving the area after being chased off by a church employee, who had been hit by a rock thrown by the suspect. The employee was also spray-painted in the face.
In the aftermath of the incident, one of the church’s entrances was destroyed, while a door in the parish’s schooling area was also smashed. Several spots within the church grounds were also graffitied with anti-Catholic rhetoric.
‘Religion of hate,’ ‘go to your fake hell,’ ‘groomers,’ ‘rapists,’ ‘woman haters,’ and a spray-painted message calling Catholics ‘liars’ were pictured on social media.
Maeve Jacqueline Nota, 31, was recorded smashing a window at one of the entrances to St. Louise Catholic Church in Bellevue, Wash., with a rock before graffitiing its walls on Tuesday
‘Religion of hate,’ and ‘woman haters,’ were several tags spray-painted on the church’s wall by Nota. Pictures were shared on social media by Bellevue Police and local outlets, including one of an entrance permanently damaged (pictured)
Relics, including a gift from the 2020 alumni class of the Virgin Mary, also known as ‘The Undoer of Knots,’ were also damaged, according to the church’s Father Gary Zender.
‘When I try to look at the person and their wounds – that helps me to step back and say ‘I have some wounds too,’ he told Fox 13 Seattle. ‘So, there’s a human connection there, as well as a spiritual one.’
Fr. Zender added he was more concerned about the condition of the employee who was attacked rather than the extent of damage done to the building.
He refused to tie the incident with the recent Roe v. Wade overruling that has sparked pro-life activists into a fury. The pastor mentioned that another church, Saint Anthony’s Church in Renton, about 13 miles south of his parish, was also vandalized with the words: ‘Abortions save lives.’
It remains unclear if both incidents are associated with one another.
Nota also spray-painted on a gift of the Virgin Mary (pictured) from a graduating class to the church
The suspect vandalized an estimated $100,000 at the Catholic church
One of the church’s entrances was severely damaged while another door (pictured) was smashed
Bellevue Police Captain Darryl McKinney said Nota’s actions would be classified under a hate crime statute and that he damaged $100,000 of property.
‘Obviously, there’s a lot going on in the world,’ McKinney told Fox 13 Seattle. ‘People are worked up about things. They’re upset – or at least some people are – I think there are some emotions stirred up and we’re seeing people act how they normally wouldn’t.’
The suspect is also facing more charges for assaulting the St Louise’s Catholic Church employee.
He was initially taken to Overlake Hospital before being brought to jail. Prior to turning himself in, Nota used a backpack filled with spray paint cans to damage a police patrol car.
St Louise’s Catholic Church in Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue Police also reported that the suspect appeared intoxicated and was injured at the time of his arrest, most likely from touching broken glass and smashing one of the doors.
‘People want the church to be a safe place, that’s what we try to consistently do,’ Zender said. ‘It doesn’t feel safe for some folks right now. We just need to keep looking to Jesus and try to offer the ministry of healing the best way we can.’
Police added that Nato could possibly face a felony charge for assault. His pre-trial conditions were made official on Thursday, although Nota remains behind bars.
There was confusion over Nota’s gender in court, as it prosecutors believe that he is transgender.