Gay Church Members Fear Incidents Are Hate Attacks : North Hollywood: A minister says each event is more violent than the last. Police rebut criticism of their response.

Alarmed by a recent break-in, an anti-gay sign and harassment of their congregation, members of a North Hollywood gay and lesbian church said Wednesday that they fear that they are the target of coordinated hate attacks and have alleged that police responded slowly.

The incidents began July 18 with a sign found propped against the outside wall of the Metropolitan Community Church in the Valley that read “$10 For Gay Lives Reward.” This was followed July 28 by a burglary in which little was stolen, but parishioners say that church files were rifled for information.

On Tuesday, church members said, someone shouted, “Faggots!” from a maroon car as it sped by. The same car was reportedly seen that evening after gunshots were heard outside the building, located in the 5700 block of Cahuenga Boulevard.

“Each time something happens, it’s worse. Each time it’s getting more violent,” said the Rev. Sherre Boothman, pastor of the church. “We cannot get the hate crimes division of the North Hollywood police to respond to us.”

The LAPD’s North Hollywood Division detectives, however, defended their reaction.

“This thing was handled as it should have been,” said Detective Joe Schenk. He said the only crime reports from the church since July 18 concern the burglary, which was not classified as a hate crime.

The department said no crime report was filed about the sign or Tuesday’s events. One officer did field a phone call from church members regarding the problems, Schenk said.

“He didn’t jump up from his desk and rush out there,” Schenk said. However, police went to the church Wednesday and interviewed officials.

Some members, citing the July 28 burglary, are worried that police efforts may already be too late. During the incident, which has led to no arrests, the church’s files were ransacked and a few hundred dollars in cash was taken, Schenk said.

“We’ve had burglaries before,” Boothman said, citing crimes in May and June, “but we’ve never had a burglary like this. This time, they ignored thousands of dollars in computer equipment. They went through every file cabinet in the church and left cash laying around. We haven’t noticed them taking anything, but there was a Xerox machine right there in the office. For us, they were obviously after information.”

This worries Bill Robinson, a church member whose name and address are listed in the files.

“We have recent information in the last month or two of some of these skinheads trying to assassinate Rodney King,” said Robinson, president of the Valley Business Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Professionals. “Something like this happens and you have to assume some of us are at risk. They had to be looking for information that they are going to do something dangerous with. I don’t know what’s happening in the Valley.”

No personal attacks against congregation members have been reported since the break-in.

In Tuesday’s incidents, someone drove by in a maroon car in the morning and shouted, “Faggots!” at two church members working outside. During a church service that night, a gunshot was heard outside the building. Boothman said she ran outside to see a maroon car speeding away. However, gunshots are not unusual in that area, Schenk said.

The congregation, chartered in 1973, is one of the oldest in the Hollywood-based Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, founded in 1968 in Huntington Park. The 32,000-member denomination has 291 churches in 17 countries.

“We are very concerned about the reports by their church,” said the Rev. Kit Cherry, spokeswoman for the denomination. “In general, however, when churches have been attacked it winds up making churches stronger in the long run as the members pull together,” she said.

Boothman said the church is trying to raise about $10,000 to repair damage to the doors and other destruction caused in the July 28 break-in. Robinson said the Valley Business Alliance has already contributed $1,000 and will sponsor a fund-raiser.

The incidents have sparked sympathy from the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council, whose ranks include Protestant, Mormon, Unitarian, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist congregations, as well as the Metropolitan Community Church.

Barry Smedberg, the council’s executive director, called the reports of burglary and harassment “very unfortunate.”

Times staff writer John Dart contributed to this article.