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The Asbury Park Police Department is working with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office to identify two suspects who vandalized the Garden State Equality headquarters on Main Street Saturday afternoon, Acting Police Chief Anthony Salerno said. 

The nonprofit’s Executive Director Christian Fuscarino said video surveillance was remitted to the local police department.

“The video and or stills, if available will not be made public as they are investigation records,” Salerno said. “If the actor(s) is/are juveniles then very little will be released. Since the incident is being investigated as a bias crime, we have brought in the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office to work with us on this case.”

Garden State Equality is the state’s lesbian, gay, bi, transgender and queer support organization, whose 2013 litigation alongside six couples resulted in New Jersey becoming the 14th state to legalize gay marriage.

Garden State Equality moved their headquarters to Asbury Park in July 2016.

Fuscarino, who was working in the building at the time of the 1:50 p.m. incident, said surveillance video that captures the suspect and their act has been turned over to the local police department.

“It’s really unfortunate,” he said. “The Asbury Park Police Department was extremely respectful and helpful in this situation. I applaud the officers for taking this issue very seriously.”

The video surveillance shows a suspect scouting the building before venturing around the corner and returning with an accomplice, said Fuscarino, who classifies the incident as a bias crime.

“It is absolutely a bias crime,” he said. “I suspect they thought no one was here at the time. You can see one of them scouting out where the [rainbow] flag was located, he then went around the corner, got the other individual and came back. It appears they used steel toe boots to break the glass. They took off immediately after the glass broke.”

Fuscarno said the incident is too closely related to those that occurred to their sister organization in Florida and at Jewish centers and at mosques across the nation.

“This kind of incident shows that hate knows no boundaries,” Fuscarino said in a written news statement. “It is not restricted by geography, even in a state as historically progressive as ours. While we have been shaken by this attack, the LGBT community in New Jersey will not be intimidated, nor will it be silenced. We will continue to fight for equality for all our members, and for any individual or group who finds themselves the victim of a similar hateful and dangerous act.”

A flood of support came from those across the state.

“Asbury Park has been a haven for the LGBT community for decades,” Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn said. “Vandalism does not represent the town as a whole and strengthens our resolve to stand with our gay, lesbian, bi, and trans brothers and sister.”

On Sunday afternoon, US Congressman Frank Pallone tweeted: This hate crime is completely unacceptable. We need to stand w/ @GSEquality & against intolerance in our communities.

“I condemn acts of hate against all communities, whether Jewish, Muslim or LGBT, in the strongest possible terms,” Sen Corey Booker said. “We must stand united with love against the ‎shadow of hate that has been cast over our great nation.”

Anyone with information pertaining to incident is asked to call the Asbury Park Police Department at 732-774-1300.

[Photo courtesy of Fuscarino]

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