The Latest: Police seek hooded suspect in mosque vandalism

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Latest on a Rhode Island mosque vandalized with anti-Muslim graffiti (all times local):

2:50 p.m.

Police in a Rhode Island town are looking for a vandal who spray-painted anti-Muslim graffiti on a mosque and broke its windows.

South Kingstown Police Capt. Joel Ewing-Chow said Friday that a witness saw a hooded perpetrator use what looked like a long-handled axe to break the window.

Ewing-Chow says police received a call about the smashed windows at about 11 p.m. Thursday. The suspect fled and could not be found when police arrived.

Members of the mosque near the University of Rhode Island’s main campus spent hours boarding up windows and removing the graffiti before weekly Friday prayers.

The vandalism happened just hours after a deadly attack in Nice, France, that officials there have called an act of terror by a Tunisian man.

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11:55 a.m.

A federal prosecutor has travelled to a vandalized Rhode Island mosque to show support for its congregants and offer help.

U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha (nah-ROH’-nah) visited the mosque Friday morning in South Kingstown.

Mosque members discovered smashed windows and anti-Muslim graffiti written on the exterior of the Muslim Community Center of Kingston’s Masjid Al-Hoda not long after Thursday night’s attack that killed 84 people in Nice, France.

Neronha’s office says an investigation into the vandalism is being handled by the South Kingstown Police Department.

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10 a.m.

A Rhode Island mosque has had windows smashed and been defaced with anti-Muslim graffiti.

Mosque members said they discovered the vandalism at the Muslim Community Center of Kingston’s Masjid Al-Hoda not long after Thursday night’s attack that killed 84 people in Nice, France.

The graffiti was written on the front of the mosque in large red letters.

The mosque in South Kingstown is near the University of Rhode Island’s main campus and is attended by many Muslim students and faculty members.

Mosque spokesman Nasser Zawia says nothing like this has happened since the place of worship was founded in 2001.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has called on state and federal law enforcement to investigate the vandalism as a hate crime.