Police in Hopewell Township are informing the public of three incidents they call suspicious.
Chief of Police Donald Sedlacek says that in all three incidents the person(s) involved is a male “that appear to be, were reported as, of Middle Eastern or of Hispanic ethnicity.”
The incidents have happened over the past nine days at New Bethlehem Church in Independence Township, Genesis Church in Hopewell and at Ridge Point Church in Brighton Township.
At Point Ridge, a Middle Eastern man, saying he was from Israel, claimed he was trying to find a new mosque.
He left an electric bicycle battery in one of the church pews and left the scene by electric bike.
At Independence, four men in head covering were slowly driving by the church and were observed “with their phones up (possibly taking pictures).”
And, at Genesis Church, a man was “caught off guard in the parking lot” by a churchgoer who left a service early. The man stayed in his car for around five minutes then left the area in a blue-gray Subaru legacy with Ohio license plates.
Chief Sedlacek says similar incidents have been happening near the Airbase at Pittsburgh International Airport.
Police ask everyone to be aware of their surroundings and to call 911 if they see anything suspicious, “especially anything similar to these events.”
Hopewell Police turned off public comments about the incident on their Facebook page.
Hopewell Police have increased patrols in the affected areas.
Around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Chief Sedlacek sent the following note to KDKA Radio:
In order to keep the public informed of recent suspicious activity I, as Chief of the Hopewell Police Department, sent a letter out to our local churches and other public locations to make them aware of unusual incidents occurring at local churches in and around our area. Due to the number of similar complaints within a short time frame and radius of occurrences it was vital to disseminate this information quickly.
The descriptive language in my letter was exactly what was reported to our department by witnesses and other departments in and around our area. Law enforcement requires that individuals engaged in unusual or suspicious behavior be identified through descriptive criteria including conduct, gender, age, race and ethnicity, vehicle description, clothing description, actions and behavior of actors as well as any other pertinent information. Any claims that using these criteria is racist or constitutes police profiling is not only wrong, but fails to recognize the simple fact that it is impossible to identify anyone other than by using these criteria.
We are working closely with our federal, state, county and local law enforcement partners to be vigilant and investigate all suspicious activity that is reported to us.
We are asking that if anyone observes anything they feel is suspicious in nature to call 911 immediately.