A 20-year-old man was arrested in connection with a series of graffiti attacks on the property of a Sikh Temple in Buena Park, including a profane reference to the terrorist group ISIS that was scrawled on a truck in the temple’s parking lot, police said Thursday.
The vandalism was reported Dec. 6 — four days after the mass shooting in San Bernardino that is being investigated as an act of terrorism with possible ties to ISIS.
Brodie Durazo, of Buena Park, was arrested Wednesday, and police say he admitted to vandalizing the truck, a wall in the temple’s parking lot and a building nearby at 7142 Orangethorpe Ave.
Police investigated the graffiti as a possible hate crime due to the ISIS reference on the truck, although the vandalism on the temple’s parking lot wall did not reference Islam.
Buena Park police said that due to the sensitive nature of the crime, they are continuing to provide additional patrols at the temple “out of an abundance of caution.”
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Los Angeles, issued a statement Thursday expressing solidarity with the Sikh community in light of the vandalism.
“As we have stated many times, an attack on any house of worship is an attack on all houses of worship,” Ayloush said.