The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday identified an Ashburn teenager as a suspect in a series of vandalisms using the MS-13 gang tag that shook many in the Virginia county where a high school student was fatally shot last week. Three illegal immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador have been charged in the killing.
Police said the 13-year-old teenager behind the vandalisms committed the acts alone, and there is no indication the graffiti found on vehicles and Trailside Middle School is gang-related.
Authorities did not release the suspect’s name because he is a minor, but said he is facing multiple juvenile petitions for destruction of property.
Multiple buildings and vehicles in Loudoun County were vandalized early Tuesday morning.
Several vehicles on Gatwick Square and Wintergrove Drive were spray-painted, and a school building and school buses in the Ashburn Farm area were also vandalized, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office said.
Exterior walls and a pillar at Trailside Middle School, two parked school buses and a sign to Trailside Park were also vandalized, WUSA9 reported.
SEE ALSO: Three illegal immigrants charged with murder of Va. student
Trailside Middle School is roughly 8 miles from Parkside High School, where 17-year-old Danny Centeno Miranda, who was fatally shot Friday, attended classes.
Centeno Mirana was shot twice in Sterling, Virginia, while walking to a bus stop. He had reportedly left El Salvador in 2013 to escape violence there and live with family in Sterling.
Three illegal immigrants were charged Tuesday in the shooting: 20-year-old Henry Ernesto Dominguez-Vasquez and 18-year-old Juan Moises Aguirre Zelaya are both charged with firearm possession by an unlawful alien and accessory after the fact to homicide; and an unnamed 17-year-old was charged with first-degree murder.
Police were initially investigating the vandalisms as possibly being gang-related.
MS-13, which originated in Los Angeles, is known as one of the most violent gangs in the world and has been connected to several murders across the country.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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