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Police seeking suspects who toppled menorah in Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Police are seeking the public's help to find the person responsible for toppling a menorah in Cambridge.

“It was really upsetting," said Lillian Carrasquillo.

Carrasquillo was walking with her family on Sunday, the first night of Hanukkah, when they noticed two women trying to lift up a fallen menorah on the Cambridge Common.

“So I stopped to chat with them and they told me that they had seen a young man just ride his bike over, push it and then ride away and they mentioned that it looked completely intentional and with force," she said.

Within a few minutes, several people gathered and were able to put it back into place.

“There were some bulbs broken and some were that were out of place," Carrasquillo said.

Cambridge Police are looking for the person responsible. The suspect is described as a white man dressed in all black and riding a black bicycle.

If caught, the suspect will face hate crime charges, said Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern.

"I was angry, disgusted and upset," said McGovern. “We need to continue to make sure to step up and say 'No, not here.'”

The menorah was put up by a group from Harvard University.

The Anti-Defamation League of New England praised the city's reaction in a tweet, saying "Religious freedom means all faiths have the right to pray and celebrate without fear and intimidation."

“We spend a lot of time focusing on the people who do the wrong thing and I want to focus on the people who do the right thing and there were a lot of people who came together, and they were different genders and races maybe different religions," McGovern said.

Carrasquillo said she's glad she was there to help when needed.

"In hindsight, thinking about it, it was the least we could have done but it’s also I’m glad that the few of us that were there just decided to do it because we all felt like it was very disrespectful to leave it," she said.

The group that helped get the menorah upright has been invited by the Harvard group to light Thursday night's candle on the Cambridge Common as a sign of unity.