The man seen vandalizing George Floyd’s New York bronze bust has been identified and arrested, the New York Police Department said. On Monday (Oct. 25), 37-year-old Micah Beals was apprehended for the crime and charged with second-degree criminal mischief. Beals is an actor most known for appearing on “CSI: NY.”
Beals’ alleged vandalism was caught on camera on Oct. 3, with police releasing the surveillance footage to the public the following day. The video showed a man riding a skateboard past Floyd’s memorial statue in New York’s Union Square before splattering the bust with grey paint.
The vandalism occurred just four days after the bust, along with statues of Breonna Taylor and the late Rep. John Lewis, was unveiled.
After the October incident, Floyd’s brother Terrence Floyd told TMZ that he hoped to meet and have an honest conversation with whoever defaced the statue in hopes of preventing future acts of vandalism.
“The George Floyd statue was the only one targeted,” Lindsay Eshelman, co-founder of Confront Art, which commissioned the three statues, said at the time. “It seems to be the one that evokes the most emotion, good and bad from all. I can personally say that Terrence Floyd, George’s brother, was incredibly disheartened and saddened to see his brother yet again be the target of such extreme hate.”
Floyd’s six-foot sculpture was previously vandalized in June just days after it was debuted in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Four unidentified suspects reportedly defaced the monument with black paint, leaving markings that were believed to be symbols of white supremacy. Police have not named Beals as a suspect in the June vandalism.
According to CBS; Beals, who is also known as Micah Femiah, was previously arrested for violating curfew during the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. His current charge of second-degree criminal mischief carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.