Yesterday morning, Alyssa posted a comment on my blog post from last Friday, Drugs, alcohol, and gangs. She asked which gang was responsible for the "D3M" graffiti in downtown Lincoln. I replied to her with, "Stand by for breaking news on the tagger using the signature D3M."
Here's the breaking news. A 22 year old Lincoln man was arrested early yesterday afternoon in connection with several graffiti vandalism cases in which the moniker "D3M" was applied with a marker. The most recent cases occurred on the night of December 15, at two downtown locations and at several other spots on State property (these were handled by the State Patrol), including the Governor's Mansion.
Snow helped, as the suspect, riding a bike, was tracked by the Capital security force, contacted and identified. There was not enough evidence to detain him at the time, but further investigation by our officers from the Center Police Team resulted in probable cause. Officers Bob Smith, Justin Darling, and others did a nice job with the follow-up work to make this case.
The "D3M" signature (some think it looks like "P3M") has appeared on many past occasions. Overnight on July 28, for example, over a dozen tags were reported. The tag has also appeared frequently on University of Nebraska property (investigated by the University Police). We will continue follow-up investigation to determine if this same suspect is responsible for these other cases. The recovery in his residence of two trophy news articles from the January 13, 2006 Daily Nebraskan and the July 29, 2007 Lincoln Journal Star would tend to indicate that he has been busy. We took quite a beating from one of the property owners and some of the reader comments in that July 29 article.
It's not this guy's first time. Back in October of 2001, we arrested him for trespassing after finding him inside a construction site in south Lincoln. At the scene of his arrest, we recovered a discarded marker. Earlier in 2001, on May 12, we arrested him in connection with a dozen graffiti vandalism cases downtown. He was using a different signature at that time. All of these 2001 cases were transferred to juvenile court, and our suspect received probation.
We arrest 'em, folks, but we don't decide the sentence.
Do the damage and cleanup expenses add up to a large enough number to allow a felony charge? Criminal mischief? In any event, unlike the last time, this one won't be going to juvenile court.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty awesome that he got caught! He tagged several doors as well as the mailboxes in the downtown apartment community where I live. Isn't defacing mailboxes a federal offense?
ReplyDelete6:56-
ReplyDeleteWe'll be looking into that as the follow-up continues. I can tell you from experience that aggregating a series of vandalisms to a felony is difficult, although we've succeeded from time to time.
8:36-
Well, yes, the United States Code outlaws "injuring" a mail box. That said, in my 33 years as a police officer I can never recall the FBI or postal inspectors investigating a residential mailbox vandalism, nor can I recall the United States Attorney filing any kind of Federal charge.
Just curious why the police calls (today so far) mostly have yesterdays date and not the present? Tahnks
ReplyDeleteFollowing up from my previous post; I'm not sure whether or not anyone reported his graffiti at the YWCA Courtyard apartments behind OSO Burrito at 101 & 121 Centennial Mall S...I noticed it over the weekend, so he probably did it on the night of the 15th like the others.
ReplyDeleteAnon. 5:39 PM-
ReplyDeleteThere's a long-winded explanation of this down in the comments (it's about number 8) on my post a couple of days ago.
The table with the number of calls by type is current--that's coming directly from the dispatch data. The "selected listing" is from the investigative incident reports submitted and processed today, which often includes reports from the previous day or from earlier in the officer's shift, but before midnight. The selected incident reports for the 18th, therefore, will be composed of incidents reported on both the 17th and 18th. There could even be a smattering of the 16th in there.
it's neither d3m or p3m, it's ame (tilt your head to the side).
ReplyDeletehe got it from his girlfriend (or ex, i don't know). she taught him some japanese, ame was his first word or something. (it means rain, he use to include the kanji in his tag)
http://www.nippobrasil.com.br/2.semanal.aula/115/ame.jpg
Well what do you know. A little Kanji on the side with a backwards E. Pretty obvious when you give it the 90 degree left rotatation. Who would have thunk. Thanks, I've learned something today.
ReplyDelete