Cleaning crews have removed much of the graffiti found scrawled on three national memorials in D.C. over President's Day weekend.
The suspect struck memorials five times: twice at the Lincoln Memorial, and once each at the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, and the D.C. War Memorial.
It happened around 11 p.m. Saturday, according to U.S. Park Police, who may have video of the suspect from surveillance cameras.
The graffiti is similar at each location and appears to be written with a black permanent marker. Park Police said it appears the vandalism was committed by one suspect, who also targeted street signs and electrical boxes around the District.
"We can't rule out that there were others. Five locations is a lot," said Sgt. Anna Rose, U.S. Park Police public information officer.
"I think it's a disgrace. These are our national monuments. Part of our history," said Kevin Hall, a service member from Oregon.
"Just coming here and seeing that, it’s pretty disgraceful to the monuments. It's horrible," said Dan, a member of the U.S. Army who was walking by the WWII memorial and pointed out that his grandfather fought in that war.
The markings had rambling messages in what appeared to be black permanent marker. On each of the memorials there's a strange mixture of ideas such as, "Jackie killed JFK" along with a reference to 9-11 and the words, "blood test is a lie."
Park Police said one of their officers on patrol discovered it early Sunday morning. The vandalism does not appear to be racially or politically motived.
"My grandfather fought in World War II... Disheartening," said Mike Litterest, Public Information Officer with the National Park Service.
It took just one cleaning with special solvents to remove the graffiti at the WWII Memorial, but getting the markings off the marble on the Lincoln Memorial, will take longer because marble is porous.
It's not the first time the memorial to America’s 16th president has been targeted with vandalism. In 2013, green paint was splattered on the statue.
The National Park Service said just like the green paint, this graffiti will be erased.
