College student faces hate crime charges for racist graffiti
Fynn Ajani Arthur, a 21-year-old black lacrosse player at Goucher College in Maryland, is accused of stealthy racist N-word and swastika-graffiti aimed at himself and others in a dormitory on campus
A black student accused his "pent-up anger & # 39; for racist, threatening graffiti he had admitted, according to a police report, in a bathroom on a University campus in Maryland.
Baltimore County police on Monday filed hate crimes against 21-year-old Fynn Arthur, a Brunswick native, Maine, who was enrolled as a student at the Goucher College in Towson, Maryland.
The police arrested him last Thursday on misdemeanor charges of malicious destruction of property.
He was released from custody after a court hearing last Friday.
State attorney Scott Shellenberger said his office subsequently recommended the extra costs, which are also crimes.
We felt that with the message that was there, there was sufficient evidence that the motive behind the message was racist, he told The Associated Press Tuesday.
Arthur told the researchers that he was responsible for the bathroom graffiti of a backward swastika and a death threat including a racist loam against blacks and the number of dormitories of black students, including himself, according to the police report.
When asked why he would do such a thing, he replied that he had built up a lot of anger and could not ventilate on the campus, says the report.
Arthur, who was a member of the Lacrosse team at Goucher College, was banned from the campus pending disciplinary proceedings, college officials said in a statement.
Racist graffiti aimed at black and Latino students was discovered on the campus of Goucher College in Towson, Maryland on November 14 and again on Thursday
The officials said they were shocked and saddened that these acts were committed by a member of our own community in the College.
"These acts of hatred have consumed our community and we strongly believe that the accused must receive the strongest accusations that reflect the seriousness of these crimes," said their statement last Friday.
Shellenberger said he does not know if Arthur has a lawyer. Efforts to reach Arthur were not immediately successful on Tuesday.
The new accusations facing Arthur make it a crime to damage property because of the race, religious, sexual orientation or national origin of a person or group.
The police began investigating after a student had found the threatening graffiti written in black markers in a bathroom window and on a bathroom wall on November 14th. The police interviewed Arthur that day since his room number had been in the message.
Arthur – pictured in his Lacrosse team photo – is banned from the Goucher campus in anticipation of a student assessment
He said that he was shocked that someone would approach him in this way because of his race, "the report says.
More racist graffiti, including the initials & # 39; KKK & # 39; and the N-word, was found last Thursday in another bathroom on another floor in the same building.
Researchers provided questionnaires to students who were mentioned in the graffiti incident and Arthur's handwriting was consistent & # 39; with writing in both bathrooms, according to the police.
Arthur had scanned his identity card to enter the building shortly before the graffiti was discovered last Thursday, according to the report.
He had also scanned his identity card at several residential buildings just before similar "bias-related graffiti & # 39; it was discovered there in March 2017, according to the report.
Arthur "accused his pent up anger for the first incident on (November 14)", the report says.
When asked what prompted him to commit the second graffiti incident, he replied that he had been drinking and & # 39; just something stupid did & # 39;. & # 39;
Via whatsnew2day.com