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UTPD Still Investigating Oct. 8 Vandalism

Writer's picture: Darby StevensDarby Stevens

Updated: 2 days ago

University employee works to remove vandalism
University employee works to remove vandalism

Police investigation is still ongoing and cleanup is finally complete following an incident of graffiti vandalism on Tuesday, Oct. 8.


The incident, which occurred between 12:54 and 1:01 a.m., included several messages spraypainted across Centennial Mall and red spraypaint on the hands of recently added Rocky and Rocksy statues.


Some of the messages, including “from Lebanon to Palestine, killing children is a crime” and “UT invests in genocide,” took weeks to remove from the cement.


“They must’ve found a good paint,” said an anonymous contractor who was hired by the university to remove the vandalism. “I hope they got what they wanted out of it.”


“It’s not affiliated with SJP in any way, we didn’t orchestrate it or have any knowledge of it,” said Omar Heif, president of Students for Justice in Palestine.


On Oct. 9, SJP posted pictures of the vandalism on Instagram, thanking the “brave person” who committed the crime, and shaming the university for “taking such swift action to cover these statements up and [for] their continued silence. If only the University would move as quickly to divest from genocide and death.”


The incident was initially reported as criminal damaging and felony vandalism. Assistant Vice President of Public Safety and Chief of UToledo Police Rod Theis said the event is also currently being investigated as ethnic intimidation, which is defined by the Ohio Revised

Code Section 2927.12 as committing certain crimes “by reason of the race, color, religion, or national origin of another person or group of persons.”


Ethnic intimidation is not a charge in and of itself, but rather elevates the degree of the criminal damaging charge.


“It appears some of our Jewish students, at least what we’ve heard from them, is that there’s a feeling that they’re trying to be intimidated, harassed, targeted, by some of the messaging that’s consistent with some of the messaging... they’ve heard over the last year,” said Theis.


“It comes back to a cost to all students,” Theis said, referring to the financial consequences of the crime. Centennial Mall was re-paved in 2021 and 2023, and the university unveiled new donor-funded statues of Rocky and Rocksy just days before the incident.


“There’s many good ways to get your message across... but committing criminal acts is not a favorable way to get your opinion across, whoever did this incident,” said Theis.


“Honestly, I just see it as the students being tired of the administration not listening to them,” said Heif. “For it to get to that point, there has to be a lot that went wrong before that happened... I guess people are just fed up.”


“Ultimately, it’s up to the prosecutor to decide if those crimes fit,” Theis said. “But when we complete a police report, we want to list the potential crimes that did occur... it doesn’t necessarily mean that the person that committed the act will get charged with all those.”


“We just gather the facts and we do the best we can, looking at the different crimes that may or may not have occurred,” said Theis. “Ultimately, the prosecutor will make a legal opinion on if the line was crossed and if those are appropriate charges.”

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