Graffiti vandal caught

A spray-painting graffiti vandal was caught-in-the-act by a police officer in a patrol car of the 109th Precinct early Tuesday morning as he defaced the walls of a Korean church in Flushing.
As police officer Robert Christel made his rounds, he noticed a white male, Michael Morales, 29, of Flushing, with a red can of spray paint marking up the walls of the Choongsyn Reformed Church at 153-11 Barclay Avenue. Morales was arrested at 2:30 a.m. February 28th and charged with a criminal mischief felony, making graffiti and possession of graffiti instruments. But not before Morales, who has one previous arrest for burglary, left a swastika and a repeated tag reading SPOK in red spray paint graffiti.
“It’s disgusting, graffiti is ruining our neighborhoods,” said deputy inspector Thomas Cea, the commanding officer at the 109th. “I’m very proud of officer Christel. I’m sure [District Attorney Richard A.] Brown’s office will prosecute [Morales] 100%.”
Cea said the vandal squad ran Morales’ tag, SPOK, through their database but no results were found. However, a block up from the church, the front door of an apartment building was tagged with SPOK, Morales’ calling card, and a large red swastika.
The crime wasn’t believed to be racially motivated. “He said he saw a clean wall and wanted to draw,” said Cea of Morales.