Overview
- Intruders ransacked Holy Innocents School’s assembly hall, chapel and classrooms, smashing statues, decapitating a long‑standing Virgin Mary statue, and throwing the tabernacle to the floor in an apparent attempt to pry it open.
- Long Beach police are investigating the case as a burglary and collected forensic evidence, including blood, fingerprints and shoe prints, but have announced no arrests or suspect identifications.
- The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation, and local authorities have been in contact with federal partners including the FBI.
- Investigators and school officials estimate damage at roughly $100,000, with some sacred items described as irreplaceable due to their religious and historical significance.
- The school community canceled a student Mass, organized volunteer cleanups, held a reparation Mass with the chapel reconsecrated, and increased security as a GoFundMe reached about $100,000.