BELLINGHAM, Wash. — A Western Washington University student was arrested by University police Sunday in connection with recent vandalism that included racist slurs on the WWU campus.
On Nov. 18, vandalism occurred on four floors of the Nash Residence Hall. Police said nine name tags on residents’ rooms, as well as a hallway, were vandalized with racist language, a homophobic slur and a threat of sexual violence.
The next day, a racial epithet was found scrawled on the Wright's Triangle sculpture near the Ross engineering building, and a poster in front of Arntzen Hall also was defaced with racist language.
The student who was arrested, a 20-year-old Gold Bar man, was booked into the Whatcom County Jail on suspicion of residential burglary and malicious mischief. He remains in jail awaiting a Monday afternoon hearing.
Police said the messages included slurs targeted at the African-American, Latinx, Japanese and LGBTQ+ communities.
The stairwell and Wright’s Triangle have since been cleaned and the name tags have been replaced.
The student who was arrested, as an interim measure, has been trespassed from all university housing and dining halls.
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