MANDEVILLE, La- A Jefferson man was arrested Tuesday on felony counts of criminal damage to property and hate crimes following anti-Semitic graffiti that was spray-painted on a Mandeville synagogue in September 2018.
Caine Zander Brown, 20, was identified as a person of interest by the Louisiana State Police Criminal Intelligence Unit and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, Chief Gerald Sticker says.
In a task force interview related to another matter, Brown said he had gone to Mandeville during the time the graffiti appeared.
Investigators also found several social media posts that glorified Nazi beliefs, including denying the Holocaust and using the term “synagogue of satan,” Sticker said.
A search warrant was obtained for Brown’s phone records and tower data. Investigators were able to determine Brown was in the area of the Mandeville synagogue on the date correlated with the vandalism. They also had a statement from a source that said Brown admitted to painting the symbols and phrases on the building.
Police say Brown spray painted symbols and rhetoric on the synagogue, including the numbers 14/88. The 14 stands for “14 words,” a slogan coined by David Lane who is serving a 190-year prison sentence for his part in the assassination of a Jewish talk show host. Those 14 words are “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for our white children,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The 88 stands for “Heil Hitler,” H being the eighth letter of the alphabet.
Investigators obtained an arrest warrant on the criminal damage and hate crimes, arresting him at his home in Jefferson Parish. He was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correction Center as a fugitive from St. Tammany.
Brown was set to be transported to the St. Tammany Parish Jail Wednesday and booked on one count of criminal damage and one count felony hate crime.
