A man has been charged with damaging religious property after he attacked two Jewish facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, earlier this month.
According to a Justice Department press release on Friday, 25-year-old Rex Crofton first arrived in a silver sedan at Congregation Albert, a Reform Jewish synagogue, at approximately 4:31 p.m. on June 2.
Upon exiting the vehicle, Crofton shattered the synagogue’s glass entry doors with a tool, flipped off the building, shouted an “indecipherable statement,” and fled the scene. Surveillance footage shows Crofton then arriving at another facility, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque, about eight minutes later, running to the front doors and hitting them with what appears to be a metal crowbar.
JCC security guards approached and chased after Crofton, prompting him to throw the crowbar into his sedan’s passenger window. One guard pepper-sprayed Crofton through the window before he drove out of the parking lot.
Following the incident, the JCC issued an emergency closure.
