Update (July 6, 4:10 p.m.): Police have arrested a suspect in this case. According to the New York Post website, Derrick Gadson, 45, was arrested around 6:40 a.m. Thursday (July 6) after a correction officer recognized him from media reports and called police.

Police are investigating a possible hate crime after a man walked inside a Prospect Heights Church and threatened a nun July 5.

The nun, Mother Superior of her community, was praying in a pew at about 2 p.m. inside the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, located at 856 Pacific Street in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, when the man approached her.

He said, “I don’t believe in this because you don’t help the poor.” When the nun did not respond, he said, “What did I say?”

The nun began to look toward a woman in another pew when the man said, “She can’t help you. I’m going to kill you.”

The nun ran and called for help.

The crime was caught on surveillance video (below). The man is described as African American, bald, about 6’ tall with a medium build. He was wearing khaki shorts, white sneakers, carrying a white baseball-style cap in his hand and a shirt in his back pocket.

The nun was praying in the church while another sister from the parish is leading a service mission to assist the poor in West Virginia.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Surveillance Video Captures Man Threatening to Kill Nun Inside Brooklyn Church from Diocese of Brooklyn on Vimeo.