Man accused of vandalizing Garfield church was baptized there, bishop says

PITTSBURGH — Stained-glass windows smashed at a local church, and the bishop says he knows who did it. In fact, he told Channel 11 he baptized the suspect.

“Yeah he had God in his life, and I believe he still does,” said Bishop Lee Carter.

Carter is talking about Cameron Key, 24, who he’s known since he was a child.

“We believe that he’s basically crying out for help and doesn’t know how to go about it,” said Carter.

Carter is the bishop at King of Kings Baptist Ministries on Broad Street in Garfield. On March 3, he received a call that someone knocked out three of the stained-glass windows of his church.  Then it happened again, about two weeks later, to even more windows causing more than $20,000 dollars in damage.

A nearby doorbell camera captured the person who threw the rocks, and when Carter looked at the video, he said he knew who it was. He also knew that Key has been struggling.

“Breaking windows to get in, not to get out,” said Carter. “So he’s saying I need your help, and the only way to get it is by getting your attention another way.”

Carter said Key is currently in a hospital being evaluated and that’s what really matters.

“Our objective is to get him the help that he needs,” said Carter. “It’s not about going to jail. Paying for this. Paying for that. That’s not the important part. The important part is the individual. You can always replace things. That’s not the hard part. The hard part is getting them to where they’re not causing damage to themselves and causing damage to other people.”

But because of damage to the church’s windows, Key is now facing two counts of institutional vandalism.

“I hope people understand this and realize that not everyone is just outright bad,” said Carter. “But they have some issues that are coming across that they cannot explain, and no one else can until they’ve been properly evaluated.”

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