Johnathan Tijerina, a gun regulation activist, has been charged over allegedly vandalizing the 9/11 Memorial in lower Manhattan, New York City . The incident took place on Monday evening with Tijerina posting about his deeds on social media.
Meanwhile, Ed Duffy, a 16-year-old from the UK, told CBS News he’d witnessed the crime. “The 9/11 Memorial is a sacred place of reflection at the heart of a rebuilt World Trade Center that honors the 2,983 victims killed in the September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 terrorist attacks. Yesterday’s brief incident was swiftly addressed by security staff and law enforcement, and the impacted area was immediately restored to its commemorative state,” a spokesperson for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum meanwhile said. In a video posted on Monday, Tijerina said that he had finished a seven-day fast promoting his demand for the city to build 2 million units of affordable housing within five years.
As per Port Authority police, the vandalism was caught on surveillance camera, New York Daily News reported.
And then within, like, less than a minute, the police came and arrested him,” the tourist in NYC said . “My name is Jon Tijerina, and I just spray-painted stop killing kids on the 9/11 Memorial,” he said, panning the camera towards the graffiti. “I saw somebody with red spray paint, and they sprayed ‘just stop killing kids’ over some of the names. The site also welcomes visitors to “learn how civil resistance works. He also shared a statement about the incident on his social media handles.
The graffiti has since then been cleaned up and there’s no lasting damage to the memorial at Ground Zero which was put up after the Twin Towers went down in the terrorist attack.
