A man from Sarasota, Fla., charged with a hate crime after he allegedly vandalized a synagogue in the southwestern Gulf Coast city, told police that he was motivated by “propaganda on social media” he saw that morning.
According to the Sarasota Police Department, Brayton Laschinger, 30, threw a brick at a glass window of Chabad of Downtown SRQ on July 29 at about 6 a.m.
“In surveillance footage, Laschinger is seen wearing a blue towel covering his head and face, throwing a brick and breaking the front window,” police stated.
“Laschinger claims that the same morning he saw propaganda on social media and that was making him mad,” police said. “He admitted to detectives that he threw the brick at the window of the synagogue because it was a Jewish place of worship.”
Laschinger was charged with felony criminal mischief of a religious building as a hate crime.
