STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – Two 19-year-olds were arrested on Sunday after allegedly spray-painting swastikas on a fence near a Sterling Heights home and several other areas.
Police said the “bias-motivated vandalism incident” in the 11000 block of Shetland Court on April 19, where city officials found spray-painted swastikas and other symbols.
“I was sleeping,” Dan, who owns the home nearby, said. “I woke up, I didn’t even know what happened, and the city actually knew before I did.”
Just feet away from Dan’s bed, the spray-painting was unfolding on his Sterling Heights fence.
Police say they got the call around 12:45 Sunday morning.
“I turned the corner, and everyone was stopping and taking photos,” Dan said. “It was not a good deal. Not a good thing to see. A lot of hateful stuff.”
Local 4 got to the fence today just as John Bommarito, the owner of Delta Pressure Washing, was scrubbing and stripping the spray paint away.
The city calls him for graffiti cleanup fairly often, but he says this was different.
“It was an easy Sunday morning,” he said. “The city called and said we need you out here right away.”
Local 4 spoke with half a dozen neighbors and people in the area today and went site-to-site. At some spots, the symbols were still there.
“We are going over it for a second cleaning right now,” Bommarito said. “I think we will probably come back for a third cleaning just to make sure everything looks good, maybe tomorrow.”
Police found the two men in a nearby parking lot and took them into custody. They found spray paint, knives and marijuana.
One suspect is from Idaho, and one is from South Carolina. They were both booked at the Macomb County Jail, and the prosecutor will review the case for possible charges.
“As someone who is sometimes politically active, I don’t like that,” Dan said. “My wife doesn’t like it, so I am hoping it was just random and it wasn’t anything like that, but the messages on it, and supposedly, there’s a death threat they covered up, and that was the only one they left, so I don’t know. It’s a crazy situation, and I am not thrilled about it.”
Police say acts like these have no place in the Sterling Heights community.