Suspect cleared in bizarre 12Stone Church vandalism

Gwinnett County police thought they'd identified a suspect in the bizarre vandalization of two 12Stone Church campuses.

They were wrong, as it turns out — and more than a month after the incidents, the quest to find the culprit (or culprits) continues.

"We thought we had someone identified," Cpl. Michele Pihera said Monday, "but further research cleared him."

12Stone Church has eight locations in and around Gwinnett and draws thousands of worshipers to its contemporary services each week. Vandalism was reported at the Lawrenceville campus on Aug. 21, and the Duluth campus on Sept. 4.

In both instances, some windows were broken while Bible verses — seemingly meant to protest the church's collection and use of money — were spray-painted on others.

"Woe to you who are rich," graffiti on one wall read. Another said merely: "John 2:16," a reference to a Bible verse that ends with, "Stop turning my Father's house into a market!"

The damage was estimated at nearly $10,000.

"In both incidents," Pihera said last month, "the suspect(s) left pamphlets at the church expressing their displeasure with the operations of the church."

One possible suspect was caught in a grainy surveillance photo at the Lawrenceville location but has not been identified.

12Stone, for its part, has turned the other cheek.

"Had they sought a conversation instead of destroying property, we may have been able to address their concerns," the church said in a statement emailed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month.