New York police investigating Satanic graffiti on four churches as possible hate crime

New York police are investigating the Satanic graffiti that was sprayed on four Long Island churches over Father's Day weekend as a possible hate crime.

According to New York Post, churches in North Amityville, Suffolk County have been defaced with disturbing scrawls, which included pentagrams and the words "hail Satan" sometime between Friday night and Saturday.

The graffiti were found at Prayer Tabernacle Church of God in Christ on Great Neck, Shaw Temple A.M.E. Zion Church on Albany Avenue, Zion Gospel Church on Warren Street and Amityville Full Gospel Tabernacle on Brefni Street. The Daily Caller noted that three of the churches are Pentecostal and one is predominantly black.

"They must have a vendetta," Walter Willie, pastor of the Prayer Tabernacle church, told New York Post. "To attack a place of healing, a place that helps people in time of great need — whoever did this has hurt in their heart," he added.

Willie, who discovered the graffiti on Saturday evening, said that the church had recently installed new security cameras, but they are not yet fully operational. He said that he wants the person responsible for the vandalism to be caught, but he still preaches forgiveness.

"I don't like it. I don't like what the person did but, I forgive him," the pastor said, according to CBS New York. "I don't hate them. I hate what they did," he added.

All four places of worship removed the graffiti before Sunday services. The churches' pastors and congregants held some sort of exorcism ceremony at their vandalized churches on Sunday.

"The blood of Jesus covers this house! No distress, no fear, to this family!" Amityville Full Gospel's pastor, William Walker, shouted as he placed his hands on the doors of Shaw Temple AME Zion Church. "Bless this house, no sign of evil will stop the word of God. Hail Jesus, hail Jesus, hail Jesus!" he continued.

The police are investigating the vandalism as a hate crime, but they are also considering whether the graffiti was left by a disgruntled parishioner out of spite.

"We are disturbed by this. It is disrespectful," said Detective Lt. Bob Donohue of the Suffolk County Police Department. "I am asking [the pastors] to speak to their parishioners, find out if anyone sees or heard anything on social media," he went on to say.

Demonic phrases and imagery have also been found by Nassau County police on the New Covenant Church in East Meadow last week, but the upside-down crosses scrawled on the church do not match the graffiti in North Amityville.