Photo via Fairfax County Police Department
A 20-year-old Annandale man was arrested on Wednesday night in connection with anti-Semitic graffiti found on Tuesday at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia and a nearby church.
Dylan M. Mahone, 20, was arrested at his home on April 12 by Fairfax County Police and Northern Virginia Community College Police.
Mahone is also believed to be responsible for distributing anti-Semitic flyers on the Northern Virginia Community College campus on March 20.
He is being charged by Fairfax Police with two counts of felony destruction of property, placing a swastika on religious property with the intent to intimidate and wearing a mask in public to conceal one’s identity.
Northern Virginia Community College Police charged him with one count of felony destruction of property and one count of wearing a mask in public to conceal one’s identity.
Police say Mahone spraypainted swastikas, lightning bolt symbols associated with Nazi Germany and other anti-Semitic graffiti on the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia’s building on Tuesday, hours after the Passover holiday began.
Police say Mahone is also responsible for similar graffiti at the Little River United Church of Christ in the 8400 block of Little River Turnpike.
“As painful as this is, it’s even more painful for it to happen on Passover, a holiday when we celebrate our exodus from Egypt and overcoming slavery,” the JCC’s executive director, Jeff Dannick, told press on April 11 outside the building, which had most of its windows covered to hide the graffiti.
A power washing company began removing the graffiti from the JCC on Tuesday.
Northern Virginia Community College Police spokesperson Kathy Thompson said Mahone has taken classes at the college, but is not currently enrolled.
