LITTLE ROCK -- A North Little Rock man was arrested Thursday and charged in the July 9 vandalism at a Confederate cemetery in Little Rock, according to a Little Rock police spokesman.
Mujera Benjamin Lungaho, 30, is charged with felony first-degree criminal mischief, and felony desecration and removal of a cemetery or grave marker, police spokesman Lt. Casey Clark said.
In addition, police determined that the damage at the cemetery exceeded the $50,000 statutory limit in the city code for charging someone under the city's new hate crime ordinance, Clark said.
The incident, which occurred in the early morning at Oakland and Fraternal Historic Cemetery on 2101 Barber St., left an obelisk marking the mass grave of 900 soldiers chipped and spray-painted with "Black Lives Matter" and obscenities on the base, according to cemetery sexton John Rains. Several other grave markers also were damaged or stolen, according to Rains.
"We're just going to wait and see what the justice system does on this," Rains said. "I hope they go away for quite a long time for what they've done not just at our cemetery but other things that they desecrated."
The arrest comes on the same day that police property was vandalized in Little Rock and North Little Rock overnight. Thursday's vandalism included a monument to fallen officers at Little Rock Police Department headquarters at 700 W Markham St. The monument was spray painted with "defund the police."
When asked about whether the incidents are connected, Clark said he could not comment on the most recent investigation.
In the July 9 cemetery incident, two people can be seen on video from a game camera that was donated to the cemetery by the Sons of Confederate Veterans for the purpose of monitoring the Confederate gravesites.
A white woman and a black man can be seen walking up to the obelisk and attempting to pull it over with a rope. They then notice the game cameras and throw the cameras into another part of the cemetery. Cemetery workers were able to recover the footage.
Police have not arrested any other suspects in the cemetery vandalism, though they and cemetery officials have speculated that at least two other people were involved -- the woman in the video and the driver of a vehicle that left tracks in the cemetery.
"They're developing some leads, and you know a lot of that depends on if this fellow will talk to them and what evidence they find," Clark said.
Rains said no plans have been made to repair the damage at the cemetery. At a cemetery board meeting last month, it was decided that the cemetery would not restore the obelisk unless the Sons of Confederate Veterans pays for it.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans has not decided whether to restore the obelisk, according to Rains.
Multiple attempts to reach a Sons of Confederate Veterans spokesperson were unsuccessful.