UPDATED, July 11, 12 p.m.
Cobb Police said today they have arrested Clint Vance, 32, of Kennesaw, on three charges of vandalism to a place of worship. Those are felony offenses, and police said investigators expect more charges to be filed in Cobb and Cherokee counties.
Vance was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center shortly after midnight Wednesday, according to the Cobb Sheriff’s Office, which said Vance’s bail has been set at $8,470.
East Cobb News does not publish photographs of crime suspects before their cases have gone through the legal system, and then only if they are convicted or plead guilty and are sentenced.
ORIGINAL REPORT, POSTED July 10, 7:08 p.m.
Cobb Police on Tuesday said they’re expanding their investigation into a series of recent church vandalisms that includes Noonday Baptist Church in Northeast Cobb.
Police announced on June 18 they were looking for a lone male suspect, between the ages of 35 and 50, and believed he was driving a Hyundai Elantra.
In a release issued late Tuesday afternoon by Cobb Police, Public Information Officer Sarah O’Hara said police are also investigating that a Honda Accord “or [a] like-styled four-door sedan” may be the suspect vehicle.
A photo at Noonday was taken by a church surveillance camera on May 8, shortly after 3 a.m., and shows a male standing on a sidewalk near the church entrance and next to a vehicle with the driver door open.
However, O’Hara said, police have been unable to identify the color of the car because of the black and white footage.
Cobb Police said last month that a male suspect they believed to be working along spray-painted “vulgar” and offensive messages on churches, including satanic messages and “what can best be described as sacrilegious symbols to include crosses with circles around them and lines striking through them.”
O’Hara said police believe the vandalisms took place from April 29 to June 1, and said that the Church of Christ at North Cobb, on Shiloh Road in Kennesaw, has been vandalized three times. She said “satanic messages and offensive language” were spray painted there, and that a private residence also is included in the investigation.
Police said the suspect is partially balding with brown hair, and weighing between 230 to 280 pounds. He is approximately between 5-foot-10 and 6-foot-2 and has a “distinctive gait” that was spotted on the security footage.
O’Hara said anyone with information about the vandalisms is asked to call the Criminal Investigation Unit of Cobb Police Precinct 1 at 770-590-5769.
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