UPDATE: 3 Children Ripped Up Quran While Ransacking Islamic Center

Written by Lanning Taliaferro

Three children are accused of ransacking the Hudson Valley Islamic Community Center overnight Sept. 16.

The incident was reported the morning of Sept. 17.

The vandals had ripped up books in a classroom; covered computers with Purell hand sanitizer; drawn a penis on the chalkboard in a classroom; broken a closet door, throwing its contents around; and trashed the girls’ and boys’ bathrooms, ripping soap dispensers off the walls and spreading soap and paper all over the rooms, police said.

One of the books was a Quran, the holy book of Islam, said Yorktown police Lt. Kenneth Soravilla.

Police beginning to investigate were able to see three suspects on the center’s surveillance cameras.

That evening, a Yorktown officer in Mohegan Lake saw two young teenagers riding bicycles on the street and identified them as looking like two of the suspects. He arrested them and took them to police headquarters. The parents of the 13-year-olds were contacted and interviewed.

A third suspect, aged 12, was identified and was later surrendered by his parent to police at headquarters, police said.

They were all subsequently charged with juvenile delinquency—if they had been adults, the charge would have been felony burglary—and are due in Westchester County Family Court Sept. 30.