Photo courtesy of the Fairfax County Police DepartmentFairfax County Police say they’ve charged the man who spray-painted anti-Semitic graffiti outside of a Jewish community center and a church in Fairfax County on Tuesday.
Dylan Mahone was also charged for another hate-motivated crime that police say he committed on a college campus last month.
The 20 year old, of Annandale, was arrested at his home on Thursday for defacing the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia and the Little River United Church of Christ, according to a release from the Fairfax County Police Department.
“Hitler was right,” a swastika, and an “SS” symbol were among the markings at the center. And at the church, a sign that said “Honor God, Say NO to anti-Muslim bigotry” was defaced, in addition to other damages.
Anti-Semitic and other bigoted vandalism has increased across the country since the presidential election, including a bomb threat against a JCC in Rockville last month that was part of a round of threats against similar organizations. There have been at least six waves of such threats that have affected Jewish schools and centers across the U.S. this year.
“As painful as this is, it’s even more painful to happen on Passover,” said the Northern Virginia center’s executive director, Jeff Dannick, at a news conference on Tuesday. He added that no one was in the center at the time of the vandalism and “there was no danger here—the facility remained secure.”
The county police department worked with officers from Northern Virginia Community College on the case, according to the release.
For the incidents at the center and church, police charged Mahone with two counts each for destruction of property, placing a swastika on religious property “with the intent to intimidate,” and wearing a mask in public to hide his identity. And campus police charged Mahone for posting anti-Semitic flyers around the school on March 20.
Detectives collected video of at least one of the incidents and were able to identify him as the suspect.
