WOODBRIDGE, Va. -- Police charged a Potomac High School student with plastering the school, and a patrol car, in swastika stickers.
Stickers bearing the Nazi symbol were found on the doors, exits signs and lockers in the school at 3401 Panther Pride Drive between April 15 and May 5.
Swastikas were also spread across a Prince William police cruiser belonging to a school resource officer, said county police spokeswoman Erika Hernandez.
Officer John E. Wheaton and investigators with the county’s property crimes unit were tipped off about a possible suspect this week.
On Tuesday, police arrested 18-year-old Joseph William Barnes of 2493 Fraser Court in Woodbridge in class. He is charged with five counts of destruction and defacing property, said Hernandez.
He was released on $3,500 bond and is scheduled to appear in court June 24.
Police said he was not charged with a hate crime because the vandalism was not aimed at any single “race, religion or creed.”
In August, four teens were arrested after police found sod that had been formed into a swastika in the parking lot of Sinclair Elementary School near Manassas.
In addition to the swastika, sod was also used to form “KKK” and “white power.”
There were 263 incidents of hate crimes in the commonwealth that year, according to FBI crime statistics.
Nationwide, there were 7,783 reported cases of hate crimes in 2008, according to the FBI.
Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-530-3905.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement