Man charged with vandalizing police HQ, several churches

Arrest follows series of incidents involving homophobic graffiti at places of worship

A man accused of spray painting homophobic graffiti on churches around Saskatoon has now been accused of damaging Saskatoon police headquarters with stones.

Police were alerted on Wednesday around 2:30 a.m. to a man throwing rocks at police headquarters. Upon investigating, officers found a 36-year-old man outside the building “holding rocks,” police said in a news release.

The man was also in possession of orange spray paint that matched the fresh, orange spray paint on the side of the building, police said.

During the arrest, the man told officers he also vandalized three churches — Saskatoon Unitarians, Emmanuel Anglican and St.

George’s Anglican — all three of which welcome members of the LGBTQ community.

Officers identified vandalism on all three churches, police said.

Rev. Karen Fraser Gitlitz of Saskatoon Unitarian said it’s “very distressing” to see the message written in tar on her church Wednesday morning. She said the tar graffiti is “very difficult to remove and more costly” than spray paint would be.

Earlier this week, the same 36-year-old man was charged with putting homophobic graffiti on two other United churches, as well as St. Andrew’s College.

According to court records, Amir Bozorgmehr appeared Monday in Saskatoon provincial court on four charges and is set to appear again Wednesday in connection with three new mischief charges.

Earlier this month, the same man was charged with mischief after graffiti was spray painted on the Pride mural on the sidewalk in front of the Arts Building at the University of Saskatchewan. One of the conditions of his release was that he was not to possess spray paint.

According to police, he has been charged with eight counts of mischief, six of which are for “reasons of bias, prejudice or hate based on religion” since the beginning of May.

“I want anyone who has been affected by this message to know that this is just one person,” Fraser Gitlitz said. “Saskatoon is a tolerant city. This isn’t the general opinion of the population and it’s certainly not the beliefs of the people of this congregation.”

Police declined to comment further.

MATT SMITH Saskatoon police headquarters was damaged after being pelted with stones early Wednesday. A man was charged in connection with the vandalism and homophobic graffiti found on several churches in recent days.