Detectives were reviewing video surveillance footage Friday in an effort to identify the scooter-driving vandal who zipped into the parking lot of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Thursday night, spray painted the station and sped off.
Although the damage is still being assessed, Lt. Mark Slater at the SCV Sheriff’s Station said the cost to remove the graffiti warrants a felony charge.
Members of the city of Santa Clarita Graffiti abatement team removed the graffiti early Friday morning.
The vandalism happened about 10:45 p.m. Thursday night, Slater said.
“Some unknown suspect drove here on a foot scooter, tagged the front of the station and at the side and then made off into the night,” he said.
The “tagged” messages — spray painted in red — were cryptic with a message on the front of the building referencing a DEA agent killed in the line of duty.
“It wasn’t like a gang thing, no personal names or statements except for DEA agent (Enrique ‘Kiki’) Camarena. It was name, then just weird stuff,” Slater said. “It wasn’t directed toward the station of personnel.”
Ninety percent of the graffiti was to the front of the building by the front door, another graffiti message of just two words was left at the side of the station.
“Right now, we’re going through the station video surveillance to see if we could identify him,” Slater said.
DEA Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who was born in Mexicali, Mexico in 1947, was murdered by drug traffickers in Guadalajara, Mexico on Feb. 9, 1985.
Six months ago, more than 100 people aware of the devastation caused by drugs gathered at the Action Family Counseling on Soledad Canyon Road Monday to remember Camarena as one of the illegal drug trade’s many victims, and to help in their small part to stamp out local drug use and prevent more SCV victims.
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