Two teens were busted with paint on their hands after defacing a Manhattan military monument Thursday, cops said.
Skateboarder Mike Kushnir, 17, and his 15-year-old gal-pal allegedly spray painted doodles, tag names, crude happy and sad faces, along with a statement that read “in god we don’t trust” on the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil War Memorial Monument on Riverside Drive and West 89th Street around 3:20 a.m., cops said.
Sgt. Nathaniel Herman and Officer Carmen Ledesma were nearby when they rushed to the scene in response to a 911 call, cops said.
“When responding to a graffiti call, the suspects are usually long gone when you get there,” said Herman. “But this time we got them, literally, red-handed.”
Kushnir tried to make a run for it but was quickly nabbed, cops said. He had red paint splattered on his skateboard. The girl, who was also cuffed, had red paint up and down her left arm, cops said.
The vandals were charged with multiple counts of felony criminal mischief for their “artistic spree,” cops said. The girl was charged as a juvenile.
She was also charged with criminal mischief and making graffiti for a March incident where she scrawled her initials on a mailbox, cops said.
Kushnir was additionally charged with tagging a lamppost at the corner of Riverside Drive and West 88th Street in May, cops said. That time he used a blue marker to write “Trap,” cops said.
Graffiti arrests citywide are up four percent as of August 24 from 1,042 in 2013 to 1,080, cops said.