Florida church vandalized after incident during Sunday service

A Port St. Lucie church cleaned up damages after someone vandalized the front of their building on Tuesday Morning, an incident church leaders say followed a concerning encounter during Sunday worship service.Truth Church Bishop JT Baumgardner said the damage was discovered when leaders arrived for morning prayer. “We came in for morning prayer, and somebody had taken … I don’t know, big pieces of glass and threw it against the building. It was broken all over the sidewalk. There was trash dumped out all over the sidewalk, and he tore the cross down and threw it down,” said Baumgardner. Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 NewsSince then, the vandalism has been cleaned up, but Bishop JT said the situation raised safety concerns for the congregation.”Especially like in today’s world, there’s a lot of craziness going on. We’re seeing all kinds of stuff nationally on the news,” he said. Church leaders reviewed and obtained surveillance video from a neighboring business that took place late Monday night, around 11 p.m. In the vide,o they saw someone they recognized who came to their service this past Sunday. Bishop JT described the individual acting erratically. “He showed up, he walked right up the center aisle, and sat on the front row. He had a backpack, but I could tell when I was on stage … he was a little bit agitated and thought something was wrong,” Baumgardner said. Baumgardner says the individual made demands that church leadership did not agree with or adopt. “He said, ‘You need to put an American flag on the platform and a Jewish flag on the platform, and your congregation needs to say the Pledge of Allegiance before church starts.’ I said no, we’re not going to do that, that’s silly, and that ain’t the Lord,” Baumgardner said.It’s not clear who vandalized the church, but the sheriff’s office is investigating. In the meantime, Bishop JT says the church will increase security. “We’re going to add a camera out front on the front porch. And see if we can do another security training. I think we got to up our game a little bit because anybody can just walk into the building, and it’s concerning,” he said.Church leaders have now filed a restraining order on this individual. St Lucie County deputies have also issued a no-trespass order for the entire plaza. Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. —

A Port St. Lucie church cleaned up damages after someone vandalized the front of their building on Tuesday Morning, an incident church leaders say followed a concerning encounter during Sunday worship service.

Truth Church Bishop JT Baumgardner said the damage was discovered when leaders arrived for morning prayer.

“We came in for morning prayer, and somebody had taken … I don’t know, big pieces of glass and threw it against the building. It was broken all over the sidewalk. There was trash dumped out all over the sidewalk, and he tore the cross down and threw it down,” said Baumgardner.

Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 News

Since then, the vandalism has been cleaned up, but Bishop JT said the situation raised safety concerns for the congregation.

“Especially like in today’s world, there’s a lot of craziness going on. We’re seeing all kinds of stuff nationally on the news,” he said.

Church leaders reviewed and obtained surveillance video from a neighboring business that took place late Monday night, around 11 p.m. In the vide,o they saw someone they recognized who came to their service this past Sunday. Bishop JT described the individual acting erratically.

“He showed up, he walked right up the center aisle, and sat on the front row. He had a backpack, but I could tell when I was on stage … he was a little bit agitated and thought something was wrong,” Baumgardner said.

Baumgardner says the individual made demands that church leadership did not agree with or adopt.

“He said, ‘You need to put an American flag on the platform and a Jewish flag on the platform, and your congregation needs to say the Pledge of Allegiance before church starts.’ I said no, we’re not going to do that, that’s silly, and that ain’t the Lord,” Baumgardner said.

It’s not clear who vandalized the church, but the sheriff’s office is investigating. In the meantime, Bishop JT says the church will increase security.

“We’re going to add a camera out front on the front porch. And see if we can do another security training. I think we got to up our game a little bit because anybody can just walk into the building, and it’s concerning,” he said.

Church leaders have now filed a restraining order on this individual. St Lucie County deputies have also issued a no-trespass order for the entire plaza.

Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here.