A man in his 30s is in custody on suspicion of defacing headstones with swastikas at a nondenominational cemetery in Glen Carbon, Illinois, U.S. news outlets reported Saturday.
In addition to the vandalism at the Sunset Hills Cemetery, in which headstones appear to have been targeted randomly, a number of homes and vehicles in the neighboring town of Edwardsville were also spray-painted with the Nazi symbol. The same man is suspected in both cases.
Over 1,300 veterans are buried at Sunset Hills, and a Memorial Day event is on the schedule for Monday. Groundskeepers are at work removing the swastikas before the ceremony.
Mark Johnson, superintendent of grounds at Sunset Hill, told reporters that "We haven't seen anything of this magnitude in the 30 years that I've been here. … It's all hands on deck to try to get this thing cleaned up by Monday."
The owner of the cemetery said that as a result of Saturday's vandalism, which is being investigated as a possible hate crime, he was thinking of installing security cameras.
