Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff photo: Alisa Boswell The wall behind ARISE Sexual Assault Services is one of the 20 locations in Portales tagged with graffiti Wednesday night. Officials said more could still be reported.
Managing editor
Portales police officials reported 20 incidents of graffiti on various buildings across town on Friday.
Staff photo: Alisa Boswell
The wall behind ARISE Sexual Assault Services is one of the 20 locations in Portales tagged with graffiti Wednesday night. Officials said more could still be reported.
The incidents occurred Wednesday night and were reported and investigated Thursday and Friday.
Portales Police Department Public Information Officer Charlie Smart said most of the buildings tagged were businesses across Portales, adding that there may still be more tagged buildings that have not been found or reported yet.
“At this point in the investigation, we were able to locate two empty spray cans and were able to track the two empty cans back to Wal-Mart here in Portales,” Smart said on Friday. “Myself and Sgt. (Nathan) Hyde reviewed the security video and were subsequently able to identify the offenders.”
Smart said seven suspects have been identified in the case with four having confessed upon being located and interviewed.
He declined to name suspects until the investigation is complete and charges are filed.
Smart said the dollar amount of the damage will be in the thousands. Each incident is being charged as a separate count with the charge likely to be unauthorized graffiti. If the damage to a property equals a $1,000 or under, the suspects will be charged with a petty misdemeanor, and if the damage is over $1,000, the charge is a fourth-degree felony.
Eastern New Mexico University’s Greyhound Arena was vandalized across 50 percent of the building, according to ENMU Physical Plant Director Ted Fares, who said the damage cost the university $4,000.
The Zeta Tau Alpha sorority building was also tagged, but he did not know the cost of the damages to that building.
Wal-Mart, which was also tagged in the incident, declined to give the cost of the damage.
Thai City restaurant representatives said they had not talked to their insurance company, and did not know the cost of their damages yet. Other damaged properties are not known.
Staff Writer Kurt Munz-Raper contributed
to this report.
