2 Teens Charged With Hate Crime-Related Vandalism In Clearwater

CLEARWATER, FL — Clearwater police detectives have made two arrests in three cases of criminal mischief that occurred over the weekend in which vehicles were damaged and hate speech was spray painted on them.

In addition to the cases in Clearwater, there were cases in the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office's jurisdiction and in Tarpon Springs.

According to Clearwater police, a 16-year-old male Clearwater High student and a 16-year-old male Largo High student were arrested Wednesday and charged with criminal mischief, burglary and petit theft in the Clearwater cases. A hate-crime enhancement will be added to the charges.

The Clearwater vandalism occurred in the 3000 block of Turtle Brook Drive, the 1600 block of Coachmakers Lane and the 2300 block of Stag Run.

The Turtle Brook Drive vandalism occurred between 7 p.m. Saturday and 7:45 a.m. Sunday. The other two incidents occurred early Sunday morning.

Windows were shattered in some cases, a tire was punctured in another. In multiple cases, racist, antisemitic and homophobic graffiti was spray-painted on the vehicles, police said.

"What these two bigots did were serious crimes that will affect their future school and professional goals," said Clearwater Police Chief Dan Slaughter. "There is no place for this kind of hate-filled behavior in our community. I'd like to thank our detectives for getting to the bottom of these senseless crimes as quickly as they did."