SAN ANTONIO -- Police said the man who toppled six religious statues during a rampage in San Antonio's historic San Fernando Cathedral on Tuesday claimed to be God.
According to a police report, the man told officers he was saving sinners by destroying the idols they worshipped. The man was charged with criminal mischief.
Some of the statues -- some more than 100 years old -- shattered into dust on the floor of the 272-year-old Roman Catholic church. The downtown San Antonio church is the mother church of San Antonio's Catholic archdiocese.
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Church vandalized
Gina Galaviz of KSAT-TV in San Antonio reports on the destruction to the church statues.
 
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A spokesman for the archdiocese, Deacon Pat Rodgers, told WOAI Radio that the man entered the church about 8:30 a.m. (Central time) Tuesday and began pulling down the statues. The life-size statues fell from six to seven feet to the stone floor.
Nobody was injured in the incident, and witnesses held the man for police. No word yet on his identity.
Initial estimates of the damage run around $200,000.
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