Police at San Joaquin Delta College believe they have found the person who has removed more than 20 LGBTQIA+ posters around campus over the past two weeks.
A campus police officer monitoring security cameras on Oct. 8 spotted a person who appeared to be the same suspect responsible for removing posters earlier this month in the Quad, Holt and Locke buildings.
Officers located a 20-year-old Delta student, who was not publicly identified, and say all of the incidents involving the posters are connected to that person. No additional suspects are believed to have been involved.
Police are treating the removal of the posters as a hate crime, a campus official said in a statement posted on the website of the student-run campus news source, The Collegian.
The case will be referred to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office with a recommendation of prosecution.
“Hate crimes and criminal acts directed at members of our campus community will not be tolerated at Delta College,” Alex Breitler, Delta’s director of marketing and communications, said in a statement. The college’s police officers “respect and protect the First Amendment rights of all students, employees and community members, including the right to express opinions and viewpoints,” the statement continued.
The latest vandalism follows two similar incidents earlier this year, the college said. In those two cases, suspects were identified and arrested.
Those cases, too, were referred to the DA’s office for possible prosecution, although the outcomes were not disclosed. Neither of those incidents is believed to be related to the latest case, Breitler said.