By Colin Mixson and Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A gun regulation activist was arrested for defacing the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero in Manhattan with graffiti in an effort to draw attention to his website on Monday, officials said.
Jonathan Andrew Tijerina, 31, scrawled “juststopkillingkids.com” across bronze panels inscribed with the names of 9/11 victims at the memorial’s north pool around 5 p.m. , police said.
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Port Authority police said the vandalism was caught on surveillance camera.
A witness later identified Tijerina as the tagger, NYPD officials said. The graffiti caused more than $2,550 in damage, cops said.
He was awaiting arraignment Tuesday evening on charges of criminal mischief, making graffiti and possession of graffiti instruments, cops said.
Tijerina’s demands for stricter firearm regulation include universal background checks for gun purchases and laws requiring every gun in America to be registered, according to his website, which invites visitors to “learn how civil resistance works.”
In a video posted on Tijerina’s Instagram, which is also called “juststopkillingkids,” the gun regulation crusader admitted to vandalizing the memorial.
“My name is Jon Tijerina, and I just spray-painted stop killing kids on the 9/11 Memorial,” the suspect speaks into the camera, which he then pans toward the graffiti.
In another video posted Monday, Tijerina said he had just finished a seven-day fast to promote his demand that the city build 2 million units of affordable housing within five years.
“The city never reached out. The media never reported this,” Tijerina complained in his video about the fast.
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