Police: 9/11 monument vandalized with crashing cardboard planes
LAFAYETTE, La. — Police have arrested a 35-year-old Lafayette man who allegedly placed two cardboard cutout images of crashing planes at the 9/11 Memorial in downtown Lafayette.
Lafayette Police Cpl. Paul Mouton says Salvador Perez was booked Wednesday on a charge of criminal damage to a historic building and criminal trespassing. He faces up to $1,000 in fines and two years in jail if convicted.
Police say the graffiti was apparently placed at the monument earlier Wednesday.
KATC TV reports the 9/11 monument is a 1-by-100 scale of both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It includes three beams from the World Trade Center, limestone from the Pentagon, and soil from the Shanksville, Penn., field in which Flight 93 crashed.
Police say an analysis of the scene— along with the style the artist used in drawing the pieces attached to the memorial — led them to Perez.
The monument was dedicated on Sept. 11, 2002, the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
