A Norwood man has been arrested and charged with stealing a gold-plated rose from a 9/11 memorial site located inside a Manhattan church.

 

Police said the theft was reported at 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at St. Francis of Assisi Church, located at 135 West 31st Street. A police spokesperson told Norwood News, “An unknown individual entered the church.” The spokesperson added that the man “removed a gold-plated metal rose from the 9/11 Memorial inside without permission.”

 

Police quickly released a surveillance photo of the suspect walking in the area while holding the rose in his hand. The following day he was identified and was subsequently arrested on Nov. 22. Police charged Deikel Alcantara, 21, of Dekalb Avenue in Norwood with grand larceny in the third degree.

 

Police said the rose, which has an estimated value of $3,000, was not returned to the church. The church pastor told Eyewitness News that the suspect had frequented the church and was once asked to leave. Public records show Alcantara had three recent arrest records on Oct. 27, Nov. 9, and Nov. 22, all occurring in Manhattan.

A male resident of Norwood later spoke to Norwood News about the suspect after viewing the police surveillance photo of the incident. “The guy lives on the 5th floor; he’s a problem,” he said. Later, speaking in Spanish through a female translator who was also a resident of the same Norwood building, the male resident said another resident of the same 6-story building knew the suspect. “He knows him; he’s a young guy and he’s got problems. He’s a young guy. He used to live here but he’s having problems.”

 

Joined by another female resident of the building, the two residents then alleged the suspect had been squatting in the 5^th floor stairwell of the building. Translating again for the second female resident, the female translator added, “I didn’t even hear [properly] what she said, but she says that he’s doing pee-pee, and all that stuff” [in the stairwell].

 

Speaking in English, the first male resident then said, “He’s not a problem. The guy’s no troublemaker, no problem. He’s a good guy, but the brains are no good. Maybe he [should] be put in a hospital, I don’t know. Yeah, put him in the hospital.”

When told that Alcantara stole an item from a 9/11 memorial side inside a church, the man responded, “Oh… hmm. He’s a good guy, I don’t know.”

 

Norwood News asked the NYPD if, to their knowledge, the suspect was perhaps experiencing a mental health episode at the time of the incident. We did not receive an immediate response.