Police Continue Search for Cemetery Vandals

Vandals knocked over dozens of headstones at a Jewish cemetery in Hartford.

Hartford police are stepping up their efforts to find those responsible for vandalizing a Jewish cemetery.

A man who was visiting his son's grave site at the Congregation Ados Israel Cemetery off of Tower Avenue on Friday discovered about 40 markers knocked off their bases.

Since then, Hartford police have increased patrols in the area and the Major Crimes Unit is now investigating the crime, police said.

On Monday, people with loved ones buried in the cemetery stopped by to make sure those sites were okay.

"We have four stones over there. It's my mother, my father, my father-in-law, and my wife's aunt," said Felix Braziler of Avon. "Thank God it's okay but what I'm seeing now, you never see anything like that."

"I wanted to come out here and make sure one way or another whether or not my parent's stones were affected. Fortunately for me they were not. Not so fortunate for others," said Herbert Shook.

Repairing the damage could take weeks and cost more than $20,000, according to cemetery officials.

Hartford police are encouraging anyone with information about who's responsible for the damage to come forward.

"It's important to find out why they did it. To me, that's the bottom line. Why did you do this? And try to correct it and try to educate people to avoid having that happen again," said Shook.

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