A Rogers Park woman faces felony hate crime charges for allegedly defacing multiple buildings, including a North Side Jewish elementary school with antisemitic graffiti and Nazi symbols.
Mariana Lynch, 30, was arrested just before 1 p.m. Thursday in the 1200 block of West Touhy Avenue after area residents called police to report someone tagging businesses, according to Chicago police. Within an hour, she allegedly defaced multiple businesses, an apartment building and park property on the North Side, authorities said.
Arresting officers recognized Lynch from a bulletin for a similar defacement that took place the day before at Yeshiva Ohr Boruch Jewish Academy in the West Ridge neighborhood, according to her arrest report.
Officers said Lynch used a black Sharpie permanent marker to draw swastikas, “never again,” and other messages “consistent with antisemitic ideologies,” according to the report.
Just before her arrest, Lynch allegedly told police she said that she was personally persecuted by the “Jews” and “has to get attention” and admitted responsibility for the multiple taggings. The report states that Lynch takes medication for “mental illness.”
She was later charged with hate crime, damage to government property and criminal defacement to other property, police said. In all, she racked up six felonies and four misdemeanor counts for the alleged defacement.
At a Saturday detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Judge William Fahy granted pretrial release to Lynch, who had no prior criminal record. The judge did order her to surrender her firearms owners identification card and barred her from possessing a firearm or other dangerous weapons, according to court records. She was also barred from the sites of her alleged vandalism.
Lynch’s arrest follows tensions sparked by the war in Gaza, after the terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.