Manhattan 9/11 Memorial Desecrated by Anti-Second Amendment Radical
A self-proclaimed activist decided that desecrating one of New York City’s memorials was the best route to publicize his hatred of guns.
The 9/11 Memorial Reflecting Pool was vandalized with red paint on Monday evening, according to the New York Post.
Jonathan Andrew Tijerina, 31, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and making graffiti.
The 9/11 memorial is the final resting place of some of our country’s greatest heroes. Yet the man who defaced it, Jonathan Andrew Tijerina, was charged only with criminal mischief and making graffiti.
We need to see federal criminal charges @TheJusticeDept. There are some red lines you do not cross, and defacing the resting place of our nation’s fallen heroes should be one of them.
— Sarah Adams (@sarahadams) October 28, 2026
Tijerina, 31, videoed himself as he painted the name of his anti-gun website on the memorial.
The paint sought to obscure the names of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack.
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The 9/11 Memorial and Museums said it removed the spray paint.
Tijerina was already miffed before his latest stunt, complaining on Monday that no one paid attention when he supposedly fasted for a week to demand two million affordable housing units be made available in New York City over the next five years.
Outrage mounts after 9/11 Memorial is vandalized — allegedly by a gun-control activist: ‘The Mamdani effect’
https://t.co/m61gJNpvnn— TheBlaze (@theblaze) October 28, 2026
“On October 26, 2026, Jon Tijerina was arrested for spraying red paint on Freedom Tower in NYC. He is demanding that Trump and Mamdani enforce common-sense, highly popular demands with respect to guns such as Universal Background Checks and a National Gun Registry,” Tijerina’s organization wrote in a statement after his arrest.
Tourist Ed Duffy, 16, of Great Britain, witnessed the crime.
“I saw somebody with red spray paint, and they sprayed ‘just stop killing kids’ over some of the names,” he said, according to CBS News. “And then within, like, less than a minute, the police came and arrested him.”
The 9/11 memorial has been vandalized.
This is what happens when you elect a Muslim as your Mayor.
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) October 28, 2026
“The 9/11 Memorial is a sacred place of reflection at the heart of a rebuilt World Trade Center that honors the 2,983 victims killed in the September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993, terrorist attacks,” a representative of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum said in a statement.
“Yesterday’s brief incident was swiftly addressed by security staff and law enforcement,” the representative said.
The New York Daily News reported that the vandalism cost at least $2,550 to fix.
News accounts did not report any statement from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on the incident.
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