Wisconsin

Student Arrested in Connection With Graffiti Signed by ‘God' at University of Wisconsin

Police said the graffiti cost $4,000 to clean and repair

After a six month investigation, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was arrested Thursday in connection with at least 11 instances of graffiti signed by "God" on several university buildings.

Denzel J. McDonald, 21, was arrested Thursday, according to a release from the University of Wisconsin Police Department. McDonald is a student at UW-Madison, and faces 11 counts of graffiti and one count of disorderly conduct, after police say McDonald threatened to kill a bystander who attempted to intervene and call police as he was defacing school property.

The graffiti was often scrawled in red and signed “-GoD” in black.

Messages included “DEATH TO THE PIGZ. –God,” “PRETENDING TO TOLERATE HUMANITY IZ HARD. –God,” “WHITE SUPREMACY IZ A DISEASE. –God” and “WARNING: SLAVE SOCETY. –God.”

UWPD police officers say they had attempted to reach McDonald multiple times over the last two weeks for questioning, knocking on his door and calling him to no avail. Then after two more buildings were defaced overnight Wednesday, university police located McDonald in a classroom Thursday morning.

They asked him to step in the hallway, according to the release, and spoke to McDonald for more than 15 minutes before placing him under arrest.

It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.

The total cost to clean and repair the damage in all 11 cases was over $4,000, police said.

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