Pensacola Police announced on Friday the arrest of four teenage suspects in connection with a string of antisemitic vandalism incidents in the Florida Panhandle city over the past two weeks.
Waylon Fowler, 17, Wyatt Fowler, 15, Nicholas Ferry, 16, and Kessler Ferry, 18, all face hate crime charges for their alleged roles in at least six incidents in which Nazi swastikas were spray-painted in public locations and two others that saw bricks thrown through windows at Chabad of Pensacola and Temple Beth El of Pensacola, putting the local Jewish community on edge.
In addition to the Pensacola Police Department, the FBI was also involved in the investigation.
Good news! @PensacolaPolice have arrested four suspects in connection with a recent spate of antisemitic vandalism incidents in the Florida Panhandle city, including Nazi swastika graffiti and bricks thrown at a synagogue and Chabad center.https://t.co/ryqzUuhwrL pic.twitter.com/OTX2oH2tnb
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) August 7, 2023
“The extra hard work of investigators and many others in the Pensacola Police Department paid off today,” Pensacola Police Chief Eric Randall stated. “We hope that these arrests can bring comfort and closure not only to those in our Jewish community, but to all citizens of this great city.”
“We will not tolerate hate crimes in the City of Pensacola,” Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said. “I greatly appreciate our PPD’s superb investigative work in recent days that clearly delivers an important message: if you conduct cowardly acts of hate in this city in an attempt to hurt or intimidate, we will find you and bring you to justice.”
Watch a WEAR News report on the arrests here:
“We are very grateful to the law enforcement for working so hard on this case and G-D willing bring these hate crimes to an end,” Rabbi Mendel and Nechama Danow of Chabad of Pensacola said.
