Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh Graffiti’

A Pittsburgh Graffiti Pig in Trouble With The Law – Nice

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Pittsburgh Graffiti Detective, Girlfriend Accuse Each Other Of Violence.

A Pittsburgh police detective and his girlfriend have filed complaints against each other stemming from an alleged incident of domestic violence in the Strip District.

The preliminary hearing for Detective Alphonso Sloan — who was seen in an unrelated special report last week on Channel 4 Action News — was postponed on Tuesday, but the criminal complaints show some of the alleged details in the case.According to the police paperwork, both Sloan and Yvonne Williams-Hill said that they were at a bar and restaurant on Penn Avenue on July 13. Both people also said that Sloan left Williams-Hill there before changing his mind and picking her up to take her home, according to the court papers.The complaint states that both people said an argument started once they were inside Sloan’s vehicle, and both of them said Sloan pulled Williams-Hill out of the car at the corner of 24th Street and Liberty Avenue.In Williams-Hill’s version of the story, she alleges that Sloan hit her with his open hands in his vehicle as she tried to cover up. She also said Sloan pulled her out of the car by her feet and legs from the front passenger seat, according to the criminal complaint.Sloan’s lawyer, David Shrager, declined to discuss the woman’s allegations on Tuesday.”I think this would be premature to try this in the media,” Shrager told Channel 4 Action News reporter Sheldon Ingram on Tuesday.In the criminal complaint that Sloan filed against Williams-Hill, he alleges that he left her at the eatery because she was intoxicated and he said that’s what led to the argument.Sloan told investigators that Williams-Hill, 25, of the Hill District, hit and punched him when she was inside his vehicle and that he warned her to stop, according to the complaint.Williams-Hill hit Sloan repeatedly with her shoe and bit him twice, at which point he put the car in park and pulled her out by her legs, the complaint says.Sloan, 38, of Stanton Heights, is a member of the graffiti task force in the Pittsburgh Police Bureau.”Officer Sloan is a 14-year veteran who just received an accommodation for some volunteer work with children in the community,” Shrager said.Sloan’s hearing has been rescheduled for Aug. 4. He is assigned to desk duty in the police bureau until the case is resolved.

Via:www.thepittsburghchannel.com

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Posted in Graffiti News, Pennsylvania Graffiti, Pig Enforcement, Who Got Bagged? | 2 Comments »

Graffiti suspect surrenders to Pittsburgh police

Thursday, June 18th, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
By Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Brookline man described by police as one of Pittsburgh’s most prolific graffiti vandals over a two-year period has surrendered to authorities.

Matthew Colamarino, who is No. 4 on the city’s list of “10 Most Wanted Graffiti Vandals,” turned himself in on Tuesday, according to Detective Daniel Sullivan of the Graffiti Task Force.

From March 2006 to June 2008, Mr. Colamarino sprayed his tags — AGANY and AGANY-ONE — on at least 74 spots across Pittsburgh, causing more than $50,000 in property damage. He faces two felony counts and 57 misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief for graffiti.

Detective Sullivan said police received a break in the case last year when Mr. Colamarino was spotted spraying garages in Bloomfield. Investigators then obtained a search warrant for the suspect’s home, where they found a canvas mural with “AGANY.”

Mr. Colamarino, now 24, came to police headquarters for questioning in June of last year. He then gave a full confession and apologized for the graffiti spree, Detective Sullivan said.

Police continued their investigation, using reports to the city 311 complaint line and other sources to track the extent of Mr. Colamarino’s tagging.

“He fully cooperated and showed remorse,” Detective Sullivan said. “In my opinion, he will receive some mercy from the judge assigned to the case.”

Mr. Colamarino is already serving six months of probation after pleading guilty to drug possession this year.

In March, police arrested Ian Debeer, No. 2 on the list of most wanted graffiti vandals, and accused him of causing $212,000 in damage to city and private property.

A year before, city detectives had searched his Mount Washington home and found 500 cans of costly, high-end spray-paint, 300 photographs of graffiti, and videos of Mr. Debeer leaving his mark.

Police said he continued tagging while investigators built a case against him.

The No. 1 most wanted vandal was Daniel Montano, a Highland Park graffiti writer who was sentenced last year to 21/2 to 5 years in state prison after pleading guilty to 79 counts of criminal vandalism.

Police have arrested six of the top 10 vandals. They are not releasing all names on the list because some are juveniles and other suspects are still under investigation.

The Graffiti Task Force was formed in November 2006 and has three full-time detectives. Since its inception, it has made 53 arrests and has six pending arrests, Detective Sullivan said.

[Via:www.post-gazette.com]

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Posted in Graffiti News, Jail Time, Pennsylvania Graffiti, Pig Enforcement, Who Got Bagged?, Who's Up? | 1 Comment »

Pittsburgh – 2nd most-wanted graffiti artist held after lengthy probe

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

One night in May 2008, police said, they spotted Ian Debeer spraying his indelible moniker, “HERT,” on a bridge support in Etna.

His arrest prompted Pittsburgh detectives to search his Mount Washington home where, they said, they found 500 cans of costly, high-end spray-paint, 300 photographs of graffiti, and videos of Mr. Debeer leaving his mark.

Despite the raid, police said, Mr. Debeer continued tagging while detectives built their case against him, until his arrest yesterday on four felony and 69 misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief for graffiti that, police said, caused $212,100 in damage to city and private property.

Officers arrested Mr. Debeer, 21, after a morning court appearance for his arrest last year in Etna.

“He thought we forgot all about him,” said Detective Daniel Sullivan, who filed a 33-page criminal complaint against Mr. Debeer that lists 100 locations where “HERT” had been sprayed.

Police said his spree of painting colorful, bubbly “graffiti murals” started in April 2007 and offers glimpses into a lively underworld of graffiti vandalism that has made Pittsburgh what one detective called “the heart of graffiti nation.”

Mr. Debeer was so prolific that the Graffiti Task Force named him No. 2 on its list of “10 Most Wanted Graffiti Vandals.” No. 1 was Daniel Montano, a Highland Park graffitist who was sentenced last year to 21/2 to 5 years in state prison after pleading guilty to 79 counts of criminal vandalism.

Mr. Montano and Mr. Debeer belonged to “Not Strictly Freights,” a prominent “graffiti crew,” Detective Sullivan said. Police also found a letter from the convicted graffitist in Mr. Debeer’s house, the complaint says.

Mr. Debeer split his time between Mount Washington and his birthplace of Buffalo, N.Y., where, Detective Sullivan said, he told police in 2004 that he was responsible for “HERT” graffiti.

“That’s my tag,” Mr. Debeer told a Buffalo police officer, according to the complaint. “The name I picked.”

Mr. Debeer’s murals also occasionally bore the letters “BF,” for Buffalo’s Finest, the complaint says.

Police aren’t sure what he does for a living or how he was able to afford the $3,000 worth of spray paint they discovered in June 2008 in his house, where he also kept detailed records of his graffiti activity in sketchbooks and computer files, they said.

Police also found hundreds of photos of graffiti, 165 of which they matched to locations Downtown, in the Strip District, the North Side, the South Side, the West End, Bloomfield, Friendship, East Liberty, Uptown and Oakland. Task force detectives spent months canvassing neighborhoods to match the photos to their locations.

The complaint says Mr. Debeer caused $65,800 in damage to city property; $18,900 in damage to railroad property; and $127,400 in damage to private property.

His arrest underscores a police push to eradicate graffiti in a city where there are at least 25 graffiti crews and 650 individual vandals, Detective Sullivan said. But it might not have the desired effect.

“The graffiti community believes now that the city of Pittsburgh is cracking down on graffiti and even more of them are coming to the city,” he said. “They get street credibility.”

Via:www.post-gazette.com

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Posted in Graffiti News, Jail Time, Pennsylvania Graffiti, Pig Enforcement, Street Bombing, Who Got Bagged? | 5 Comments »

Art students charged with ‘tagging’ city with graffiti

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Police charged a pair of students from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh with a year-long graffiti spree that caused more than $94,000 in damage and ended only after one of them “tagged” the store shelf from which they stole a pen.

“These gentlemen were looking at etching pens. And of course one stole one and the other one on the way out had to leave his mark on the shelf. So he left his tag on the shelf,” said Detective Frank Rende, a member of the city graffiti task force.

The store, in North Versailles, prosecuted the men for shoplifting and the one suspect’s graffiti name — “Toaster” — turned up on a city vandalism database.

Members of the city’s three-man graffiti task force, which includes Detective Rende as well as Detectives Dan Sullivan and Alfonso Sloan, carried out a search warrant at the Art Institute dormitory, just a block from the city jail, and found evidence linking the two students to graffiti across the city.

Charged were Bryan Stafford, 19, who tagged buildings and walls with the names “Sine” and “Sine One,” and his partner, Terrell M. Crawford, 19, who used the names “Toast” and “Toaster.”

The two are being held in the Allegheny County Jail on two felony counts.

“If I use the word artist, kick me in my shin,” Detective Rende said to police spokeswoman Diane Richard as he began an afternoon press conference that laid out the graffiti case.

Police say the men traveled throughout the city with cans of spray paint.

“They were doing it on railings, mailboxes, buildings, garage doors, business fronts, rooftops — they were pretty rampant,” said Detective Rende. He said the pair even spray-painted a highway underpass where the homeless resided.

An estimated $15,000 of the damage was done to property of the Norfolk-Southern Railway, police said.

After a search warrant turned up evidence linking the pair to the graffiti, Detective Rende said, “they came in for an interview. They confessed that they are Toaster and Sine One.”

The city has spent 2008 cracking down hard on graffiti vandals.

In July, Daniel Montano, a Highland Park graffitist, was sentenced to 2 1/2 to 5 years in state prison after pleading guilty to 79 counts of criminal vandalism.

Detective Rende said task force members had hoped the Montano case would scare off future graffiti squads. Yesterday he pleaded for the public to keep an eye out for graffiti vandals and to notify police.

“If you see a kid out there with a backpack at 11 o’clock at night and a tossel cap and a hooded sweatshirt, he’s not going to study with his friends,” he said. “There’s a good chance he has paint cans in that bag.”

[via:www.post-gazette.com]

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Posted in bombing, Graffiti News, Pennsylvania Graffiti, Pig Enforcement, Street Bombing, Who Got Bagged? | 1 Comment »

Graffiti arrests may deter others, city police say

Sunday, December 14th, 2008

Pittsburgh police said Saturday they hope the arrest of two more accused graffiti vandals will deter others from spray-painting their marks across the city.

“We’re getting the support from Chief Harper and from the judges,” said Detective Frank Rende, a member of the city’s graffiti task force. “We’re getting search warrants when we need them and in the case of Daniel Montano, a state prison sentence.”

Bryan X. XtafforX, 19, known as “SINE” or “SINEONE,” and Xerrell M. Xrawford, 19, known as “TOAST” or “TOASTER,” were arrested Friday. The pair worked together to vandalize some 60 bridges, signs, walls and trails in the city, police said.

Rende was referring to a previous high-profile graffiti arrest of the self-proclaimed graffiti king of Pittsburgh — Daniel J. Montano. Montano, 23, of Highland Park is serving to 2 1/2 to 5 years in prison and five years’ probation, for $232,582.40 in property damage he caused during a years-long graffiti spree that targeted Lawrenceville, East Liberty, Bloomfield, Shadyside and Oakland.

Crawford and Stafford were arrested through cooperation from a store worker and police in Versailles, Rende said.

Rende said police often rely on tips to help catch graffiti vandals and encourage the public to report graffiti and suspicious people.

“These guys were looking at etching pens in the store and Toast Crawford carved his tag on the shelf,” Rende said. “They both stole an etching pen and were cited by Versailles police.”

Stafford, a native of Chester County, is accused of causing $58,347 worth of damage. Crawford, a native of Rochester, N.Y., is accused of causing $35,747 in damage.

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City seeks to impose fines on graffiti vandals, cohorts

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Pittsburgh City Council acted Wednesday to impose fines on graffiti vandals and those who help them deface public and private property.

“I want to see the complete eradication of graffiti, every piece of graffiti in this city,” said Councilman Bruce Kraus, sponsor of the bill to fine vandals $100 to $500.

The penalties received council’s preliminary approval the same week that Daniel Montano pleaded guilty to 80 counts of graffiti vandalism. Montano, 22, of Highland Park, must pay up to $300,000 in restitution.

Vandals who cause more than $5,000 in damage — a felony — would be fined $500, according to the bill. Police on Pittsburgh’s graffiti task force told council members that a majority of the graffiti vandalism they see exceeds $10,000 in damage.

The measure requires store owners to either constantly monitor spray paints, markers or etching acids and tools for sale or keep them concealed from the public and make them available only upon request.

In another provision, once the city notifies property owners that their building has been defaced, owners have 10 days to remove the graffiti. If that does not happen, an owner could be fined $250.

Vandals sentenced to community service must spend it cleaning up graffiti, according to the bill.

“If the tag doesn’t hang, the tagger moves on,” Kraus said.

The bill faces a final vote Tuesday.

[Via:www.pittsburghlive.com]

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Posted in Dumb Shit, Graffiti Debate, Graffiti News, New Graffiti Laws, Pennsylvania Graffiti, Politics | No Comments »