Cronkite Leadership Office staff, with the help of ASU Police aides, discovered a man who had been vandalizing the Walter Cronkite School since January on Friday.
The graffiti usually said “surrender,” or had an “S” with a white flag, and appeared in elevators, stairwells, and men’s restrooms on the third and fourth floor, said Megan Calcote, senior office specialist for the Cronkite School.
It started in late January or early February, and then didn’t happen again for two or three weeks, said Patrick Hays, Cronkite School Business and Finance director.
“We thought it was a one-time incident, possibly someone from an outside event,” Hays said. “We hold lots of outside events, so maybe someone came to an event, tagged (the building) and left.”
Calcote said it was the first time graffiti has been in the building since its opening.
“Then it showed up consistently on Monday and Friday for a good month, all of March, at least,” Hays said.
However, only two incidents of “criminal damage” have been reported to the ASU Police. Bailey Jolley, ASU Police records clerk and undergraduate in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said “criminal damage includes things like graffiti.”
“Criminal damage can include anything like a broken window,” Jolley said. “It is vandalism with criminal intent.”
According to ASU Police logs, incidents at the Cronkite School were reported on Monday, Feb. 21, and Friday, April 15.
After reviewing security tapes, a small list of suspects emerged from the incidents that were “common denominators,” Hays said.
Hays and ASU Police aides staked out the bathrooms on the third and fourth floors, watching who went in and frequently checking for graffiti, Hays said.
They set up a camera on the third floor recording everyone who entered the restroom.
“You can’t set a camera in the restroom because that would open a whole other can of worms,” Hays said.
During the stakeout, an ASU Police aide checked the fourth floor men’s restroom to find all objects clean of graffiti as Hays described. Yet, as the aide was leaving, the suspected tagger entered said restroom; afterward there “was all sorts of writing on the walls.”
“We went back down to (level) three to see if he would come back because he typically hit both in one stop,” Hays said. “It would be better if we could catch him in the act because it would be easier to prosecute.”
Hays said the man then noticed a “tail from us,” exited the building through a back stairwell and left the premise in his car.
Hays said the case was in police hands now, as there have been similar incidents on the Tempe campus.
Commander for the Downtown campus Richard Wilson had no comment Monday evening.
“We do not comment on active cases as to not impede the investigators,” said Wilson, adding he could not confirm the number of incidents as the “matter is under investigation.”
Locations tagged Friday included Lattie F. Coor Hall and the H.B. Farmer Education Building at the Tempe campus, Hays said.
“It’s a bit ironic as (the suspect) is an education major,” Hays said.
Hays also confirmed the alleged suspect is no longer allowed in the Cronkite building.
Contact the reporter at caitlin.cruz@asu.edu
