Cars vandalized during Marshdale prayer meeting

Seventeen vehicles were vandalized while parked at a prayer service at The Barn at Evergreen Memorial Park in Marshdale on Jan. 29, according the the Jeffco sheriff.
Someone poured a gel-based paint stripper on the vehicles while people were attending the meeting, the sheriff said in a news release. Obscenities were scratched into the paint on two of the vehicles, according to a person who was in attendance.
Evergreen resident Brian Kerby, who leads the weekly healing service with his wife, said that when he arrived at The Barn about 6 p.m., he saw that windows in the building had been broken. He placed garbage bags over them to keep out the cold air.
After the service ended at 9 p.m., people began going outside to their cars. However, they came back in when they saw the vandalism, Kerby said.
"While we were waiting for the sheriff, we all gathered in a circle and started to pray for the person who did this," Kerby said. "We prayed for forgiveness for this person."
"Thank God no one came into The Barn," he said. "Cars can be fixed."
Victim estimates put a total value of the damage at more than $43,000.
Kerby, a deacon at Christ the King Catholic Church, offers the Intercessors of the Trinity service for people in need of support. It is an interfaith ministry that began several years ago at the couple's home and moved to The Barn when the number of participants increased.
Kerby said he does not believe the vandalism was directed at the group, but rather at an individual.
"We don't think it was meant toward our ministry," he said.
Anyone with knowledge of this crime is asked to call the sheriff’s tip line at 303-271-5612.

Contact Sandy Barnes at sandy@evergreenco.co or call 303-350-1042.