Graffiti damage mars Hernando community

Oct 12, 2006 03:26 PM PDT

Mississippi investigators arrested three teenagers Thursday, wanted for spray-painting gang symbols in a Hernando Community.

The vandalism occurred in two separate incidents over the past weekend in the Edgewater community of Hernando. After the vandalism, graffiti marked the culverts and the pavilion in the community. Homeowner J.R. Owens was forced to sand spraypaint off the fence surrounding his property after it was tagged.

"It made me mad," Owens said. "If I could have got ahold of them, I would have used their nose to rub it off with."

At first glance, the graffiti appeared to be gang symbols. After investigating, Hernando Police Detective Russell Perry learned they weren't looking for gang members, but rather for imitators. "The graffiti that they did mark is no way gang related at all," Perry said.

According to Perry, the "Vice Lord" and "Gangster Disciple" symbols carved into the pavilion picnic table were done incorrectly, tipping police off that they were dealing with children. Police have arrested and charged three teens with malicious mischief, and expect to bring charges against two more.

Perry said none of the suspects have offered an explanation of why they destroyed the property. "They only explanation they can give us is they were bored," he said. "They had a four-day weekend this past weekend, and had nothing to do."

Owens said one of the teens visited him at his home after the incident to apologize.