Historic Jewish graves vandalized

The headstones of nine historic Jewish graves were toppled and broken in a Louisiana cemetery.

The vandalism in the section of the Shreveport cemetery called Hebrew Rest was reported Saturday by a groundskeeper.

The headstones are quite large, making it very difficult for one person to knock one down, a student from Louisiana State University told the Associated Press. A group of LSU students is cataloging the graves at the cemetery.

Most of those buried in the cemetery died in the late 1800s during an outbreak of yellow fever, which killed a quarter of Shreveport’s residents, according to the AP.

The vandals could face hate-crimes charges, police told the Shreveport Times.