5 Teens Charged With Vandalizing High Schools

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga.,None — Channel 2 Action News has learned five teenagers are facing charges in DeKalb County after two high schools were vandalized.

Police told investigative reporter Mark Winne that the young men spray painted racist graffiti at Lakeside High School and St. Pius X Catholic High School on Thursday night.

DeKalb County officials confirmed Andrew Cook, Dylan Dietz, Shawn Latour, Nathan G. Brown and Christopher Roberts were charged with criminal damage to property at both schools. Brown and Roberts were also charged with felony burglary pertaining to the Lakeside incident, officials said.

St. Pius Principal Steve Spellman showed Winne the damage to a cherished statue on campus that the young men are accused of targeting.

"This is coach George B. Maloof who was the head coach here for 26 years, and we just had this done when we dedicated the stadium in his memory. The whole thing was covered with orange spray paint, and you can see in the eyes here we couldn't get it out. We worked about four or five hours out here with a high-pressure machine and chemicals and its still embedded along the neckline here and down into the clothing."

Spellman said the young men who spray painted Maloof's statue defaced a memorial to a man who left his mark on countless St. Pius students.

St. Pius Athletic Director Mark Kelly said, "I know coach Maloof. One of the first things he'd want to do is talk to the young men caught, and tell them why they did wrong, but tell them he still had belief in them because he saw everybody as God's child."

Spellman indicated there was more vandalism and graffiti around the stadium and on other statues, not all of which could be washed off.

Spellman confirmed to Winne a variant of the N-word was spray painted and that students saw it.

St. Pius football player Paul Logan told Winne, "I was mad. The whole football team was mad. We were here working out and we saw it."

DeKalb School police Sgt. Jeff Perkins said authorities believe the same five young men responsible for the vandalism at St. Pius had just hit Lakeside High School.

A police report Channel 2 obtained indicates DeKalb police caught two young men leaving St. Pius. One had orange spray paint on his finger, and admitted to DeKalb Police he had been inside Lakeside earlier that night, which led to more arrests, the report said.

Channel 2 obtained evidence photos from the vandalism incident at Lakeside High School, two of which show variants of the N-word.

Perkins said surveillance photos show some of the teens in action, spray painting obscenities and racial slurs and discharging two fire extinguishers in the hallways.

Two of the young men were Lakeside students; no St. Pius students were involved.

Winne spoke to Dylan Dietz' mom who said her son is an A-B student who has never been in trouble. She said she guesses these were naïve kids who didn't understand the possible consequences.

A police report indicated one of the teens said two of them went to a toga party, picked up two friends and another person and decided to vandalize Lakeside.

Spellman said regarding the young men charged, "Distasteful as it is, will pray for them."

WSBTV