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Police investigate vandalism at Palo Alto Catholic center as possible hate crime

PALO ALTO -- Vandalism at a Roman Catholic pastoral center in Palo Alto is being investigated as a hate crime, police said Saturday.

Sometime between Sept. 18 and 24 someone spray-painted a white racial superiority phrase on a wall at St. Thomas Aquinas Pastoral Center at 3290 Middlefield Road. A suspect also spray-painted a statue in the center's garden.

St. Thomas Aquinas Pastoral Center
St. Thomas Aquinas Pastoral Center on Middlefield Road in Palo Alto Google Street View

Dispatchers received a report at 4:10 p.m. Friday of the vandalism. The center serves as the administrative offices for three Roman Catholic churches in Palo Alto.

The vandalism was removed by the time a parishioner told police of the crime.

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