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Edmonton police have arrested two people after graffiti appeared on a number of buildings around Edmonton, including historic buildings across Old Strathcona.

The Princess Theatre, Block 1912 and the Old Strathcona Farmers Market were all recently hit by what police are calling a “major graffiti series.”

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Police have arrested a pair of 22-year-old men, an EPS news release said Friday.

“We believe these two individuals have caused a lot of damage across the city, and shown disrespect to some of Edmonton’s most historic landmarks,” said EPS Whyte Avenue beat Sgt. Michael Keef, in a news release Friday.

Police continue to investigate as they believe others are involved in the graffiti tags.

The Old Strathcona Business Association and Capital City Clean Up welcomed the news of arrests saying affected business have had to bear the financial costs from the vandalism while dealing with negative public perceptions because of the graffiti.

“Capital City Clean Up’s professional cleaning program applications have increased dramatically from 160 in 2018 to 230 already this year. This tells us that more and more people are becoming victims of graffiti vandalism, which makes arrests like these so important,”said Don Belanger, program manager with Capital City Clean Up, in the news release. “Graffiti vandalism scars our communities and costs everyone.”

Devon Acuna, 22, and Connor Hawkins, 22, each face five global counts of mischief over $5,000.

dshort@postmedia.com