Michigan Hockey Player Accused Of Vandalizing Jewish Center, Off Team

ANN ARBOR, MI — A University of Michigan hockey player is off the team and faces accusations that he vandalized a Jewish center near campus earlier in the year.

Johnny Druskinis, a sophomore defenseman who had two assists last season, was dismissed from the program for a violation of team rules, according to Associate Athletic Director Kurt Svoboda, who did not provide details about the nature of the violation.

The grassroots watchdog organization Stop Antisemitism in a since-deleted post on X said Saturday that Druskinis had vandalized the school’s Jewish Resource Center. The organization in a follow-up post Tuesday clarified the content of the graffiti.

Surveillance video released by police showed two young people, a man and a woman, spray painting the sidewalk outside the center in broad daylight as pedestrians walked past during the Aug. 22 incident.

On Tuesday, police said the suspects had been identified and that the man painted a homophobic slur and genitalia, while the woman painted her initials, which appear in photos released by law enforcement to be “MEM.” Jewish center leadership did not want to prosecute, so the case was closed with no charges, according to police.

The woman in the video was lacrosse player Megan Elizabeth Minturn, StopAntisemitism told the Jewish newspaper The Algemeiner, adding the sophomore had been suspended from the team but not removed.

Svoboda did not comment on whether Minturn was involved in the vandalism, but said the lacrosse team’s 2024 spring roster had not yet been released, as the season does not begin until February.

In a statement on its website, the Jewish Resource Center referred to the graffiti as "offensive and disrespectful," but said the matter had been put to rest and ongoing news coverage of the incident was "unwarranted and unfortunate."

"We have been in contact with those responsible and received a private apology, as well as a subsequent public apology," the statement said. "The public apology took place on Shabbat, in front of over 350 people. We deliberately chose Shabbat for the public apology, knowing it would not be recorded, and thus not contribute to further public attacks."

"... As far as the JRC is concerned, these students aren’t bad people and certainly don’t need to have their lives ruined. While they made a poor choice, they sincerely apologized, and we have high confidence they won’t repeat such actions ever again."