Man arrested in spree of vandalism that included historic cemetery

BATON ROUGE - Police arrested a man accused in a string of vandalism near Mid City and tagging a historic African-American cemetery.

On Tuesday, the Baton Rouge Police Department confirmed it had booked Brandon Hayes on more than a dozen charges. Hayes, 31, is facing 14 counts of criminal damage to property for the string of vandalism that unfolded near downtown.

He's additionally charged with criminal damage of historic building and landmarks with graffiti for tagging the sign outside Sweet Olive Cemetery a week earlier.

Much of the graffiti was concentrated to abandoned buildings lining Florida Boulevard near downtown.They all seemed to have the same style: jumbled up words and phrases with vulgar language.

Last week, the spray paint could be seen from the old Borden Dairy building near N. Foster Drive to the CATS station on N. 22nd Street. It resembles the vandalism discovered at the Sweet Olive Cemetery the week before.

A quick cleanup effort scrubbed away the red and black spray paint at the cemetery in just a day's time. But that wasn't the case for other spots near Mid-City.

"We're not sure what message this person is trying to send, but they are really getting the attention of everybody,” East Baton Rouge Councilwoman Tara Wicker said last week.

Police said Hayes was already in custody for separate crimes when they arrested him for the vandalism.