Florida man arrested for spray painting anti-racism messages on 100 stop signs

N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY
·2 min read

A Florida man is facing felony charges after allegedly spray painting anti-racism phrases on 100 stop signs, according to the Port Orange Police Department.

The word “racism” or the phrase “I can’t breathe” were found spray-painted beneath the word “Stop" on stop signs around Port Orange causing an estimated $12,500 in damage last month, according to police records. 'I can’t breathe' has been uttered by dozens of people who died after being restrained by police, and became a rallying cry against police brutality after the high-profile deaths of Eric Garner in 2014 and George Floyd in May.

Police obtained surveillance video from the areas where the vandalism occurred which allowed them to identify vehicles connected to the incidents and a suspect: 32-year-old Zachary Kato.

Officers began conducting surveillance on Kato and executed a search warrant at his home on Friday. A search warrant was executed at his home on Friday where police found appliance epoxy spray paint, stencils and a receipt for the purchase of spray paint and stencils.

Police said the lettering on the signs matched the size and style of the stencils found in Kato's home.

Zachary Kato, 32, was arrested on a felony criminal mischief charge.
Zachary Kato, 32, was arrested on a felony criminal mischief charge.

George Floyd is not alone: 'I can’t breathe' uttered by dozens in fatal police holds across U.S.

“You can lock me up and throw away the key," Kato said while police searched his home, according to the affidavit. "I want to see a judge and jury tell me that speaking out against (expletive) racism is wrong."

Police also seized Kato’s cellphone and found pictures of stencils stapled together, the vandalized signs and screenshots of online posts about the graffiti. Kato said in an Instagram message that the graffiti was written with appliance epoxy paint that would be too difficult to scrub off and would force the city to paint over the signs.

After Kato was arrested, he said he didn’t realize he could be facing a felony and “100 was too much but if I could do it all over, I would do it again,” according to police.

Contributing: Katie Wedell, Cara Kelly, Camille McManus and Christine Fernando, USA TODAY

Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida man arrested for spray painting 'I can't breathe' on 100 signs