The NYPD arrested two more men this week in connection to the vandalization of a Pride flag display at the Stonewall National Monument in the West Village, for a total of three arrests.
The first arrest came on Aug. 28, when 25-year-old Colorado resident Patrick Murphy turned himself in, police said. But video from the June 10 incident, during Pride month, captured three men tearing down and breaking multiple flags belonging to a Pride display located at Christopher Park just outside the Stonewall Inn.
Police arrested Manhattan resident Charles Hyder, 25, on Tuesday in connection with the vandalism. Authorities on Wednesday also said 24-year-old Bostonian Jackson Randall was taken into custody. Both arrests took place in Greenwich Village, though police did not say whether they were apprehended or if Hyder and Randall turned themselves in.
All three suspects were charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime. Attorney information for the suspects was not immediately available.
Creator of the Pride flag display Steven Love Menendez said he hopes the arrests discourage similar behavior in the future.
“I just hope that people being held responsible for their actions will start deterring these things from happening in the future,” Menendez told Gothamist on Wednesday. “And more than that, I just wish that the rhetoric of hate that’s being pumped out by some pundits and politicians and being put into the air would just be brought to an end.”
The June 10 act of vandalism wasn’t the only one that took place at Christopher Park that month. Two additional incidents were reported on June 15 and 18. Police said investigations into those are ongoing.
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