The Montpelier Police Department says a man who died in a car crash in early July is responsible for the June vandalism of the Black Lives Matter painting that runs down State Street in front of the Statehouse.
Police identified 56-year-old Fred Seavey as the man who spray-painted incoherent sentences and words on the sidewalk adjacent to the street mural, as well as smeared motor oil across it on June 14. Hundreds of volunteers helped paint the project the previous day.
Seavey was seen in security camera footage using red spray paint to graffiti the sidewalk next to the street painting, according to an Aug. 6 press release from the city’s police department.
Additionally, Seavey could be seen on security camera footage entering the construction area behind the Montpelier Department of Motor Vehicles’ office, where he took oil and chemicals that were also used to deface the mural, police say.
Police confirmed Seavey’s identity through DNA that was collected off of one of the spray paint cans he threw in a nearby trash can. Additionally, witnesses confirmed that Seavey looked like the man they saw vandalizing the mural during a police lineup.
Seavey also made statements similar to those he spray-painted by the mural to a passerby, which aided the investigation, according to police.
Before he could be charged, Seavey died in a car crash July 1, according to a report from the Vermont State Police. A subsequent investigation of the crash revealed Seavey was traveling north on I-89 in Waterbury when his car veered off the road into the median and struck a ledge.
The top prosecutor for Washington County declined to press charges because Seavey is dead. State’s Attorney Rory Thibault wrote in an Aug. 6 letter to the Montpelier Police Department that while there would’ve been probable cause to support some criminal charges, there was not sufficient evidence to bring a hate crime enhancement.
“Based on review of the investigative materials provided, I have concluded that probable causes exists and there is sufficient evidence to support the filing of criminal charges in this matter, specifically, for unlawful mischief, burglary, and petit larceny,” Thibault wrote. “None of these offenses is subject to a hate crime enhancement, notwithstanding the apparent intent, because the victims are governmental entities (the City of Montpelier, and the State of Vermont), not specific individuals.”
Although no criminal action will be taken, the Montpelier Police Department condemns any defacement of the mural that is “racially motivated,” the release stated.
No one from the Montpelier Police Department was available to comment at the time of publication.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Police ID dead man as Black Lives Matter street painting vandal.