The Boston Police Department on Monday announced a teenager was arrested after allegedly destroying part of the New England Holocaust Memorial with a rock, the second time the memorial has been vandalized in three months.
“According to witnesses, the suspect was seen throwing what appeared to be a rock at the Memorial which shattered a glass panel,” police said in a statement. “The 17-year-old juvenile will be charged with the Willful & Malicious Destruction of Property.”
Police described the suspect as a “17-year-old male from Malden” who was “being detained by two bystanders” when officers arrived on the scene Monday night.
“Officers observed shattered glass on the ground in the area where the panel had been damaged,” police said. “The BPD’s Civil Rights Unit is also investigating the incident to determine if additional charges are pending.”
“Clearly, this type of behavior will not be tolerated in our city,” Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said. “And, in light of the recent events and unrest in Charlottesville, it’s sad to see a young person choose to engage in such senseless and shameful behavior.”
Violence erupted at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, where one person died and dozens were injured after a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters.
In June, James Isaac, a 21-year-old, was arrested and charged with malicious destruction of personal property and destruction of a place of memorial after he allegedly used a rock to shatter a panel of the Boston memorial. Isaac pleaded not guilty.
The Washington Post reported that the memorial, which has six glass towers etched with numbers representing those the Nazis tattooed on Jews and other prisoners in concentration camps, opened in 1995 and was vandalized for the first time in June.
