A 65-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the latest caught-on-video vandalism of a Glendale peace monument, and police are investigating whether she is responsible for other recent crimes.
Jackie Rita Williams was taken into custody Friday, a day after the latest vandalism of the Korean Comfort Women Monument in Glendale’s Central Park.
The monument had been previously vandalized on Sept. 16 and once before in July, police said.
It is unclear, however, if Williams is tied to all three crimes.
In previous incidents, the monument was written on with black marker and several potted plants around the statue were knocked over.
In Thursday’s incident, a woman is seen on surveillance video walking up to the monument with a rolling briefcase in tow. She then appears to draw on the statue with a marker for about a minute before knocking over plants, the video shows. The video appears to skip, but at one point, the base of one of the plants appears on the head of the statue.
Willams was arrested in Glendale and was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism. She was also booked on another warrant for vandalism that occurred in another city, officials said.
Police are investigating whether she is also responsible for other acts of vandalism in the city that have occurred in the 200, 300 and 400 blocks of East Colorado Boulevard.
In those cases, derogatory statements were written on walls, bus stops and benches, police said.
Tahnee Lightfoot, a spokesperson for the Glendale Police Department, said investigators are reviewing surveillance videos of the incidents.
She said the motive behind the recent vandalism in the park is unclear.
“We don’t know motive or intent or why she did this at this stage,” Lightfoot said. “She has not been forthcoming and has not been stated anything to the detectives.”
She is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 1. Bail was set at $20,000, court records show.
Williams was arrested on Aug. 8 in Pasadena, Los Angeles County booking records show. In that case, she was accused of writing a series of threatening messages against Asians on a church sign, a U.S. Post Office and a business, according to the Pasadena Star-News.
“China Leave I will kill you” was written on a Pasadena Presbyterian Church sign, the newspaper reported.
