DOVER, Del. --- A Camden man unaffiliated with recent Black Lives Matter protests in Dover was charged vandalizing a memorial to fallen law enforcement officers, city police said.
M/Cpl. Mark Hoffman, a Dover Police Department spokesman, said Kyle Bullock, 42, was charged with felony level criminal mischief in connection to damage sustained on Friday morning by the Delaware Law Enforcement Memorial.
A sculpture of a kneeling officer at the monument was found on Friday morning to have suffered significant damage to its neck and police found an axe and two State of Delaware flags soaked in urine, Hoffman said.
While on scene investigating, Hoffman said Dover police officers found a cellphone and were able to determine the phone belonged to Bullock.
As the officers remained in the area, Bullock came back and asked officers if they had seen a cellphone, claiming he had lost it in the area while participating in protest activity earlier that day, Hoffman said.
Bullock quickly left the scene, officers obtained warrants for his arrest, and state troopers arrested Bullock at his home on Friday night, Hoffman said.
Police said Bullock had been observed in the area of protests in Dover and at the Dover Police Department becoming disorderly towards law enforcement officials and civilian employees he encountered.
However, Hoffman said Bullock was not a part of the group of organized persons that have conducted protest activity in the Dover area and that several members of the protest group advised law enforcement throughout their demonstrations that Bullock was not with them and asked law enforcement to be aware of him as well.
Bullock was committed to SCI on a $5,100 cash bond on a single count of Felony level Criminal Mischief Over $5,000.