A 24-year-old man is accused of vandalizing a city’s battle memorial, in accordance with police who mentioned the desecration of the memorial was “painful for our community and our veterans.”
Stoneham Police acquired experiences from a DPW worker {that a} man sporting a masks and sun shades was “behaving strangely” close to the city’s battle memorial on Thursday at round 11:30 a.m.
The memorial — which honors veterans from World Warfare I, World Warfare II, and the Korean Warfare — is in entrance of the police station.
The DPW worker seen that the memorial had been defaced with pink spray paint, with a number of strains and phrases written on the memorial.
The particular person then ran from the realm. The DPW worker adopted the suspect, and informed police the place he was heading. The suspect was discovered about 10 minutes later.
The person had additionally allegedly threatened the DPW worker by waving a knife, police realized.
Cops spoke with the suspect, and decided that he was affected by a psychological well being disaster.
Stoneham Hearth and Armstrong EMS additionally responded to the scene. The person was transported to an space hospital for analysis, and to be linked with acceptable companies.
The person from Stoneham is being summonsed to Woburn District Courtroom and he will probably be charged with: aggravated defacing or damaging property; and assault with a harmful weapon, to wit, knife.
Stoneham DPW has eliminated the spray paint from the memorial.
“War memorial is a sacred space that remind us of the sacrifices made for our freedoms,” Police Chief James O’Connor mentioned in an announcement. “To see it defaced is painful for our community and our veterans. Thanks to the diligence of our officers and DPW workers, the situation was resolved quickly, and we will continue to protect these sites with the respect they deserve.”
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