An investigation was continuing Wednesday into the vandalism of a glass door at the Chabad House at USC, but police said they do not believe the damage rises to the level of a hate crime.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers from the USC Department of Public Safety responded to the house in the 2700 block of Severance Street around 9:15 p.m. Tuesday.
Police said four suspects, described only as "male juveniles," approached the building and two of them ran to the glass front door of the building, "and one kicked it, causing damage."
"The juveniles fled the scene on bicycles," police said in a statement. "LAPD Southwest Detectives responded to the location and gook a vandalism report. Based on preliminary information, this incident did not rise to the level of a hate crime."
"What goes through somebody's mind walking up to somebody's front door and kicking it in, it's unimaginable for me," Rabbi Dov Wagner, who lives in the Chabad House, told KNX News' Nataly Tavidian. "But what we do here is spread light, and I believe that the more we see something like this, the more we've got to double down on our mission of building positivity, bringing goodness and kindness into the world, and to spread more light."
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Video surveillance footage showed the two men damaging the door at 2713 Severance St. and then sprinting away.
"Today, the Chabad House at USC was vandalized. Two men came and destroyed the front to the place that the Wagner family and many Jewish USC students call home," according to Chabad of USC's post on X, formerly Twitter. "The event only further highlights the rising antisemitism on US college campuses."
No further information about the suspects was immediately released. According to police, the USC DPS and LAPD Southwest Area University Park Special Problems Unit is increasing patrols in the area while the investigation continues.
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