An unidentified suspect was captured on a video security camera on Nov. 7 tearing up and pulling down part of a two-story tall LGBTQ Pride banner from the outside wall of Bethesda United Methodist Church in Bethesda, Md., according to Montgomery County police.
WTOP News and the online news site MOCO 360 report that one of the church’s ministers, Dennis Williams, was the first to discover the damaged Pride banner as he was leaving the church on Tuesday, Nov.
7. “I’m a member of the LGBTQIA+ community,” MOCO 360 quoted Williams as saying. “It was gut wrenching,” he told the news site. “It made me emotional, because we belong to a church that is so welcoming and has embraced us as a family so well.
It was really sad to see.” WTOP reports that police said a preliminary investigation found that on Tuesday, Nov. 7, at around 9:35 p.m.