Gay Pride Banner Cut Off Taken From Tarrytown Church

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There may have been a local hate crime stemming from the Orlando attack.

As CBS2's Ali Bauman reported, someone removed a rainbow gay pride flag from Christ Episcopal Church in Tarrytown.

The pastor of the church hung the flag alongside two existing rainbow banners following the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, which left 49 people dead and 53 injured.

The Rev. Susan Copley said whoever took the flag went to great lengths.

"It had literally been cut off. The zip ties that had held it on were all slashed and just laying in the yard," Copley said, "So I knew it wasn't just that somebody had just kind of playfully taken it off."

Several of the rainbow banners have been taken in the past, so the church has several signs underneath them saying, "Benner thieves, God loves you madly! 1 John 4:7."