Bellingham police name 2 of 4 graffiti suspects after months-long vandalism investigation
Bellingham Police have named two of the suspects in a months-long vandalism investigation and announced stronger charges against the men they believe were plotting to paint graffiti across the downtown area.
Jack C. Toillion 18, and Garrison P. Bonds, 19, both of Bellingham, were booked Wednesday on suspicion of criminal conspiracy and first-degree malicious mischief, police Lt. Claudia Murphy said.
“From the investigation, it appears they were working in concert as part of a common scheme or plan to commit malicious mischief to tag and graffiti locations within the city of Bellingham,” Murphy told The Bellingham Herald in an email Saturday, April 29. “Based on that, there was probable cause for the criminal conspiracy charge.”
Both were released after their arrest Wednesday, according to online jail records..
Students by those two names are registered at Western Washington University, WWU spokesman Jonathan Higgins told The Bellingham Herald.
First-degree malicious mischief is a class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a $20,000 fine, or both. Criminal conspiracy is a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.
Toillion also faces 282 counts of third-degree malicious mischief with a cumulative damage assessment of $27,582, police said last week on the department’s social media accounts.
Bonds also faces 381 counts of third-degree malicious mischief with a cumulative damage assessment of $38,262, police said last week.
Two other vandalism suspects have not been arrested and their names were not released, Murphy told The Herald.
Police have been working in recent months with downtown merchants and city officials to put a stop to a rash of graffiti vandalism with damages that amount to nearly $100,000.
Statements last week on the Police Department’s social media pages indicated that four people had been arrested, but Murphy clarified that statement Saturday to say that only two men were arrested, Toillion and Bonds, and they were facing more serious charges than originally described.
Photos of several graffiti “tags” were uploaded to the department’s Facebook and Twitter pages, all taken in the downtown area.
Those graffiti tags included “Home,” “Maze/Ezma,” “Rhizo,” and “Noid,” according to the social media posts.
City officials have been focused on reducing graffiti and other forms of vandalism in the downtown core over the past several months, and the city began an initiative last year to remove graffiti and add private security to bolster the Police Department, which has been understaffed in recent years.
In its social media posts, Bellingham Police said the investigation is continuing.
“(Our) lead investigator wants to know if you were a victim of the four below tags and have not reported,” the department said.
Graffiti victims were urged to take a digital photo and report damage at www.cob.org/reporting or contact Deputy Chief Don Almer at dalmer@cob.org if they have information about the graffiti tags involved in the recent arrests.
This story was originally published May 1, 2023 at 10:22 AM.
