A woman accused of vandalizing the World War II Memorial has been arrested in Washington, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced Friday.
Melissa L. Farris is facing two felony charges in federal court, Pirro said on social media. Court documents show Farris is facing a count of willfully injuring or committing a depredation against property of the United States as well as a count of destruction of a veterans memorial.
World War II Memorial vandalized with spray paint and bubbles
“Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather,” Pirro wrote.
The memorial was vandalized Thursday with bubbles filling the fountain and graffiti that appeared to read “Clean hands dirty $.”
The suspect appears to have livestreamed the incident on Facebook on an account under her name.
A video posted to Facebook that went live around 2 p.m. ET Thursday shows a woman shaking a can of spray paint and then spray-painting the memorial.
“It was me. I’m doing it. I did it. It’s on camera,” the woman, whom authorities identified as Farris, said in the Thursday livestream.
Another livestream posted Friday morning appears to show the woman identified as Farris turning herself in.
Law enforcement responded to a call of a disorderly person Thursday, after which a U.S. park ranger observed the woman later identified as Farris flee the area, U.S. Park Police Detective Christopher Edmund wrote in an affidavit. The affidavit said a U.S. Park Police officer then recognized the suspect as someone they arrested in connection with unlawful camping on federal property on Monday. Farris had a Kentucky driver’s license when she was arrested on the camping charge, the affidavit said.
The arrest comes after Pirro’s office made the call to drop a case against former Olympic canoeist David “Davey” Hearn in connection with an incident at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a decision that drew President Donald Trump’s ire.
Pirro’s office said that the damage to the Reflecting Pool was “the result of flawed installation.” A judge dismissed the charge against Hearn but had not yet decided whether to ban Pirro’s office from bringing charges against Hearn in the future.
Trump denounced the vandalism in a post on Truth Social, connecting the damage at the World War II Memorial with the Reflecting Pool saga.
“Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals. THERE CAN BE NO GREATER INSULT TO THOSE AMERICAN HEROES WHO DIED IN WORLD WAR II. First the Reflecting Pool, now this,” Trump wrote in a post Friday. “We are on their trail! Where do these animals come from???”
The Friends of the National World War II Memorial said in a statement that the location is “a sacred place of remembrance—a place where veterans, families, students, and visitors from across our nation and around the world come to reflect on the courage, sacrifice, unity, and service of a generation that helped preserve freedom.”
The Interior Department, which oversees the two monuments and other historic sites, said the vandalism was “an utter disgrace and will not be tolerated.”
