Vandals hit cars, school and a building with spray paint

by JOHN LASKO

News-Times reporter

The Amherst Police Department is on the lookout for the vandals who spray painted all sorts of gang graffiti at several places throughout the city, including a swastika a resident found painted on his truck.

It started when officers received a report there was miscellaneous graffiti spray painted all over the place at Powers Elementary School at 401 Washington Ave., on Wednesday, June 18.

According to the police report, the derogatory graffiti was found on everything from the building to the playground equipment, as well as on the benches and even on the parking lot.

"(The graffiti) seemed to be targeting one particular 16-year-old high school juvenile," lieutenant Joseph Kucirek said.

The second report came in about an hour later when a passerby noticed some graffiti on the former La-Z-Boy building at 1957 Cooper Foster Park Road.

When officers went to check it out, they noticed some new graffiti on the west side of the building which was intertwined with existing graffiti.

One symbol represented a gang insignia, while the other contained just letters.

According to the police report, the investigating officer thought the letters spelled out SPAM. However, when Kucirek looked at the image, he thought it was the letters S-P-A, along with some type of gang symbol.

"We haven't really determined when it happened, it could've happened over night but it was reported to us that day," he said.

Kucirek said he does not know at this time if these two incidents are related.

Two days later on Friday, June 20, a Westchester Drive resident came to the police department to make another vandalism report.

He told the investigating officer someone spray painted a white swastika, along with the words "I love you" on the back of his pick-up truck.

"We have not received any previous complaints or if he had been a previous victim in regard to anything of this nature," he said.

Kucirek told the News-Times they are investigating this case as a hate crime.

That same day, vandals struck another vehicle at a residence only five houses away on Westchester.

This time the vandal spray painted some type of gang insignias all over a vehicle.

"These look like more random acts of graffiti rather than anybody in particular being targeted and we don't think these residents or their kids are affiliated with any gangs," he said.

Kucirek told the News-Times he is confident they will catch whoever is responsible very soon and bring them to justice.

"Many times like this, whoever is responsible for the crime either talked about it, bragged about it or told somebody else about it. And a lot of times those people tell other people and that's how we find out about it," Kucirek said. "So minus any witnesses or some type of description to go on, it's usually the mouths of the perpetrators talking too much that really get themselves in to trouble."

Kucirek would not confirm or deny if the department has any suspects or if they are following up on any leads at this time.

"We're looking at the incidents and we don't necessary believe that the same people are involved in all four incidents but it's not being ruled out either," Kucirek said. "I know that they are looking at a couple different avenues in terms of capturing who may be responsible for these crimes."

Kucirek adds if anyone has any information on these incidences or has had any similar happen to them to contact the Amherst Police Department at (440) 988-2625.