University of Maine officials are offering a cash reward for information about the vandal who spray painted words attacking President Donald Trump, Sen. John McCain and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the weekend.
Campus police and the Division of Student Life are offering $1,000 to anyone who provides information leading to the culprit, said Vice President of Student Life Robert Dana, who described the graffiti, which had been scrubbed off by Monday, as “nasty screed, rude, cruel and tone deaf.”
Vandals targeted the Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King Memorial Plaza. The graffiti did not appear to be racially motivated, Dana said, adding that UMaine officials don’t yet know if the culprit(s) is a student.
“I’m not going to tolerate this on this campus,” Dana said. “Civility must reign here.”
Five different spray-painted declarations on the brick ground, wall and granite benches in the King Memorial Plaza — located on the Orono campus between Beddington Road and the Maine Folklife Center — were discovered around noon Sunday by a custodian, Dana said. University officials believe the vandal struck late Saturday evening or early Sunday morning.
In addition to a four-lettered word preceding the names of both men and ICE, the vandal also left “another nasty statement about McCain’s passing,” Dana said. Sen. McCain died Saturday.
“I think it’s an act of cowardice. Bottom line is this is not UMaine,” said Dana, who has worked at the university for 34 years. “It’s not what we tolerate on this campus, and it’s a real affront to all of us.”
Anyone with information is urged to contact Det. Keith Mercier at keith.mercier@maine.edu or 207-581-4072.
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