A 31-year-old man was arrested in Lower Manhattan on Monday evening, October 26, after police say he spray-painted red graffiti across the bronze panels of the 9/11 Memorial's North Pool — panels inscribed with the names of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The charges are allegations; he has not been convicted of any offence in the incident.

Source: New York Daily News via EMS1

According to the New York Daily News, Jonathan Andrew Tijerina scrawled "juststopkillingkids.com" across bronze panels at the memorial's north pool at around 5 p.m. on Monday. Port Authority police said the vandalism was caught on surveillance camera, and NYPD officials said a witness later identified Tijerina as the tagger. Police said the graffiti caused more than $2,550 in damage. Separate accounts of the police statement said memorial staff notified officers at about 5 p.m. that a person had been detained, and that Tijerina was taken to Manhattan Central Booking for processing.

Arrested within moments, police and witnesses say

Ed Duffy, a tourist visiting from the United Kingdom, told CBS News New York that he watched the act and the arrest: "I saw somebody with red spray paint, and they sprayed 'Just stop killing kids' over some of the names," he said. "And then within, like, less than a minute, the police came and arrested him." Images from the scene showed red paint across the memorial's bronze name panels on the north side of the North Pool.

He was awaiting arraignment on Tuesday evening on charges of criminal mischief, making graffiti and possession of graffiti instruments, police said. Those are the charges as reported by the Daily News; the final charges are for the arraignment court and prosecutors to confirm.

He filmed it himself, police say

In a video posted on his Instagram account, also named "juststopkillingkids," Tijerina identified himself and admitted the act on camera, according to the Daily News: "My name is Jon Tijerina, and I just spray-painted stop killing kids on the 9/11 Memorial," he says in the video, before panning the camera toward the graffiti. Accounts of the footage say he recorded and publicised the act himself.

The website named in the graffiti campaigns for stricter firearm regulation. According to the Daily News account of the site, its demands include universal background checks for gun purchases and laws requiring every gun in America to be registered, and it invites visitors to "learn how civil resistance works." Those are the site's stated aims. In another video posted Monday, Tijerina said he had just finished a seven-day fast to promote a demand that New York City build 2 million units of affordable housing within five years. "The city never reached out. The media never reported this," he said in that video. Reports of his stated motivation also pointed to a recent mass shooting at a university in Florida, which he cited in his video — that is his stated reason, as reported, not a court finding.

The memorial's response: restored, no permanent damage

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum said the affected area was quickly cleaned and restored. In its statement, quoted by CBS New York, the memorial said: "The 9/11 Memorial is a sacred site of reflection in the heart of the rebuilt World Trade Center, commemorating the 2,983 victims who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993. Security and law enforcement officials quickly handled the brief incident yesterday, and the affected area was immediately restored to its commemorative state." No permanent damage was reported.

The place itself

The memorial's two reflecting pools sit in the exact footprints of the Twin Towers at Ground Zero. Water cascades down the sides of each pool into a central void, and the bronze parapets around them carry the names of the 2,983 people killed in the 2001 and 1993 attacks. The incident came about six weeks after the site marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, at the annual commemoration ceremony on September 11, 2026, when families gathered at the pools to hear the names read aloud — the same panels police say were painted over on Monday.

Who polices the site, and the timeline

The World Trade Center site, including the memorial plaza, is policed by the Port Authority Police Department, which manages security at the site, while NYPD officers also responded and NYPD officials briefed reporters on the witness identification. The timeline, as reported, is compact: the painting happened at about 5 p.m. on Monday, October 26; the suspect was in custody within moments, according to the witness account; the memorial cleaned the panels and restored the site the same day; and on Tuesday evening the arrested man was still awaiting arraignment. Nothing in the reporting suggests any wider disruption to the memorial, which remained open, or any injury to any person.