Potomac, MD – Montgomery County police say someone used a BB gun to shoot holes in several windows at a synagogue in Potomac and at two nearby businesses.
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The vandalism was discovered early Monday at Beth Sholom Congregation on Seven Locks Road. The Jewish holiday of Passover begins Monday evening.
Officer Howard Hersh, a police spokesman, says investigators haven’t determined whether the act was a hate crime. He says the two businesses have Jewish affiliations. They are a jewelry store and a women’s clothing store.
Hersh says surveillance video shows the suspected shooter driving up to the stores in a vehicle around 1:20 a.m. Monday. He says synagogue also has a video surveillance system but it’s not yet known whether it captured any images that will aid investigators.
The shul is on a heavily traffic road just about 1/2 mile south of the county police headquarters and detention center so its hard to understand how the vandals could not have been noticed. The same with the restaurant although it would have been easier to drive up close late at night. This is the first vandalism of this type we have seen at this shul although there was another recent incident up in Olney which was attributed to a homeless person.