Vandals accused of 'terrorizing' Goodyear neighborhood

Posted on 14. Feb, 2010 by dbarnhart in family focus

Police arrested two men with ties to street gangs who are suspected of “terrorizing” a Goodyear neighborhood with graffiti, officials said.

David Capper, of Avondale, and Zack Sharon, of Mesa, were booked on 46 counts each of criminal damage – one count for each graffiti symbol.

The pair was arrested Jan. 29 after a three-week joint investigation by a statewide street gang task force, the Goodyear Police Department and community members, Goodyear police spokesman John Rowan said.

Capper and Sharon allegedly scrawled graffiti throughout a neighborhood in northeast Goodyear, between Central Avenue and Dysart Road, and Van Buren Street and Interstate 10, Rowan said. The graffiti began appearing the first week of January and continued for about two weeks.

“This (investigation) was in direct response to a community outraged that their neighborhood was being terrorized by graffiti vandals,” Rowan said. “That area went from being pristine with no graffiti to, all of a sudden, dozens and dozens of locations were tagged, all within a week.”

Goodyear police partnered with the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission, the task force that spearheaded the investigation, which recognized the graffiti symbols and linked them to gangs based in the West Valley, Rowan said.

Working with Goodyear’s patrol officers, neighborhood resources unit and neighborhood services department, investigators pinpointed Capper and Sharon as their suspects.

Rowan said the Goodyear Police Department has a “zero-tolerance policy for graffiti vandals,” and more charges are possible.

“We are working closely with the County Attorney’s Office so that these two receive the maximum penalty allowed under the law,” he said.