ROSSVILLE — A man was arrested Thursday after he painted a giant swastika and an anti-Semitic slur on the garage door of his neighbor's home, police said.
James Rizzo, 37, was arrested in front of his Wirt Avenue home and charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime after he painted the hateful graffiti on a Jewish woman's home located several doors down from his residence, a spokeswoman for the NYPD said.
Rizzo was arrested for attempted murder in 1997 after he beat and stabbed a man, as well as for DUI in 2006, police said.
The son of the victim, Debra Calabrese, found the graffiti on her home at about 5 a.m. Tuesday and called the police.
"This is terrible," Calabrese told DNAinfo New York prior to the arrest. "Everybody is upset. I've never seen anything like this around here."
Calabrese said she planned to leave the graffiti up so people don't "just forget about this," but the 123rd Precinct tweeted out on Thursday that a local group had painted over it.
Working with our partners to erase the signs of hate......more good news to follow #Wheretoturn #CleanTeam pic.twitter.com/HZZQyYj73o
— NYPD 123rd Precinct (@NYPD123Pct) October 19, 2017
