By William Tauro
A suspect that was allegedly accused of defacing a grave and urinating on American flags last week at a Somerville Veterans cemetery is being detained on a court ordered 14 day evaluation stay in a Rhode Island psychiatric facility after he allegedly made threats to kill himself.
Last week we wrote an article about a Facebook post that was posted last Monday that had since gone viral on the Internet where a good samaritan who witnessed two alleged vandals defacing a grave in Somerville at the Somerville Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
According to the samaritan’s Facebook post he also witnessed one of the vandals urinating on four cemetery flags that they pulled from a grave at the cemetery before leaving the scene.
The good samaritan then followed the alleged vandals and was able to get an opportunity to grab a few photographs of the suspect and his girlfriend.
According to sources, the alleged suspect was arrested this past week at a Rhode Island airport by Rhode Island State and Warwick Rhode Island Police as he was boarding the plane attempting to return to Oregon to elude any arrest or conviction by local authorities.
We are also being informed that Deputy Chief James Stanford of the Somerville Police Department contacted Mayor Curtatone and asked if the department should issue an arrest warrant and apprehend the suspect after the 14 day evaluation stay but was allegedly asked to stand down because of political pressure issues being put on him on both ends by certain political groups.
On Monday we attempted to obtain a copy of the police report at the Somerville Police Station of this incident but we were turned away and advised that no reports were available.
Somerville Police Detective Mark Polli who has been recently assigned the case was unavailable for comment.
Read the following original Facebook post below that was posted which led up to this article:
I witnessed something today that outraged me! I was driving down Broadway in Somerville. I stopped behind a bus waiting to pull into Clarendon Station. I looked over to my right and saw young people (early to mid 20’s) go into the Somerville Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
As they approached the statue, I saw them grab the 3 or 4 mini flags that were placed in from of the statue. The guy took the flags and tossed them behind the statue. What I saw him do next pushed me to a point where I said to myself “ENOUGH”.
The guy started urinating on the flags. I quickly pulled over, got out of my car and headed over to them. The girl was standing by the gate (she must have been the look out). I started yelling at them to stop, asking him as I approached ‘what the hell he was doing’. He stopped urinating, pulled up his pants and started walking out of the memorial.
Both of them walked up Broadway laughing. I walked behind them for awhile telling everyone I pass what they did. I went back to the memorial to see what damage was done (see photo). An older gentleman came over and thanked me for taking a stand. He told me he has 2 friends buried there.
Still outraged, I felt I needed to do more. So I got back in my car and drove up Broadway (toward Telle Sq) to see if I could find them. I wanted photos of them. I saw them walking up Broadway. I pull over across the street and waited for them to catch up.
They were across the street and I snapped a few photos from my car (see attached photos).
What possible reason could they have for desecrating a WW2 Memorial? There are consequences for our actions. They probably thought no one would do anything. They were WRONG!
UPDATE… After reviewing over 800 comments I understand everyone’s outrage but do not condone taking action into your own hands. I fully intend to file a report with the police and share all information that I have.
Taking action into your own hands will only distract from what they did. Don’t give them anything to use in their favor. Thank you.
