Police in York Region are trying to identify three male suspects accused of spraying anti-Semitic and hateful graffiti at multiple Markham schools over the weekend.
Families arrived at William Armstrong Public School on Sunday afternoon to find the school’s playground defaced with graffiti referencing the KKK and Nazism.
“White power” was sprayed across the side of a blue slide.
Police say similar graffiti was also found at Reesor Park Public School on Wooten Way and at Markham District High School on Church Street the same afternoon.
Investigators quickly determined that each of the locations were connected and likely done by the “same group of individuals.”
On Wednesday, they released security camera footage of three male suspects believed to be responsible for the graffiti. They say it’s likely the culprits hit all three schools in the “very late hours” of Saturday or early Sunday.
“Crimes like these are devastating to everyone who takes pride in being part of such a diverse and inclusive community,” York Regional Police Chief Eric Jolliffe said in a statement Wednesday.
“I am asking our community to come together and share information that will help us find the people responsible for these crimes. I strongly encourage those responsible to seek legal advice and turn themselves in.”
Shortly after the discovery, a group of families banded together and flocked to the playground at William Armstrong P.S. to clean the graffiti by hand.
“I saw a swastika, KKK, white power, white power symbols. It had been egged,” Jen, whose son attends the school, told CTV News Toronto.
“I wondered how I would explain this to my seven-year-old who lost family in Auschwitz.”
Armed with sponges, soap and water, the children and their parents scrubbed the words off the slide and jungle gym.
“They’re vandalizing it for no good reason,” one child said. “I don’t really understand why but I’m cleaning it up anyways.”
Anyone who recognizes the males in the photos or has any information about the incidents is being asked to call police or Crime Stoppers.
