The serial spray painter of Ventura is convicted rapist, the police say

A convicted rapist was reached in Ventura under the suspicion of swastika painting spray throughout the city and then documenting hate crimes on social networks in the effort to look like fear, the authorities said.

John Williams, 30, was arrested on Sunday and reserved at the Ventura County prison, under the suspicion of vandalism, a hate crime and a password violation, after the officers connected it to at least five reports painted by spray, according to the Ventura Police Department.

“It seemed that Williams was the Svastikas Spray painting and then taking pictures with them and uploading to social networks in the effort to give the appearance that other people committed hate offenses and spread fear,” the department said in a statement.

Williams was convicted of forced rape in 2019, after being guilty of the 2015 crime, according to judicial documents. At the time of the latest arrest, he was in freedom for the sentence to rape, the spokesman of the CMDR Police Department. Sarah Heard confirmed.

The suspect spray painter in series Svastica has a historian of password violations, the judicial documents shows. Just 10 days before the most recent arrest of his vandalism, he was reserved in the prison in Ventura County, in accordance with a conditional freedom, according to the county prisoners’ journal.

On Sunday morning, the department received a call from a business in block 1000 in East Front Street, near the center of Ventura, reporting that someone painted a swastika on a wall of its property. The officers examined the video for the crime surveillance camera and identified the suspect that Williams, the police said.

Then they received four more calls regarding the Swastikas spray on public and private properties throughout the city.

While investigating the first vandalism, the officers saw Williams riding an electric scooter near the Main and Ash streets. They said they made an application stop and found evidence that connects it to crimes.

Williams is detained on $ 250,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, according to the county owned.

He was reserved on four accusations of vandalism of the crime, a number of vandalism for crimes, a number of hate crimes, a number of crimes of violation of the conviction and a number of offenses to be in possession of a Stunar weapon with a previous conviction, according to the journal of the detainee.

US have seen a significant thing Increasing the crimes of anti -Semitic hatred and vandalism in recent years.

During the 12-month period after the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7, 2023, Reported the anti-defamation of the league Over 10,000 anti -Semitic incidents in the US – an increase of 200% compared to previous years and the highest registered number. It included more than 1,840 incidents of anti -Semitic vandalism.

The county to see a 91% increase in anti-evreous hatred offenses From 2022 to 2023, the last year for which data is available. The number of incidents increased to a maximum of 242 from 124.

In 2023, a man in Los Angeles was accused of Swasts of painting by spraying on more than a dozen vehicle. Swastika Graffiti were also found in Santa Monica, West Hollywood, San Dimas, Calabasas and on the campuses in USC and UCLA.