Sapulpa Police Arrest 19-Year-Old Accused Of Vandalizing City Parks With Graffiti

Sapulpa Police arrest a 19-year-old man they say vandalized two parks, and possibly a third over the weekend, causing thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.

The city has closed Liberty Park, Heritage Park and Davis Park while crews clean up the graffiti of racist and vulgar words and symbols. Police arrested Brandon Arnold, who they say confessed to vandalizing two of the parks.

The City of Sapulpa Parks Director, Carson Lynch, says this means half the playgrounds in the city are now closed because of this graffiti. He says a lot of the graffiti is on the rubber safety surface, which is hard to clean, so the city may end up having to replace it all.

Sapulpa city workers have spent the last few days trying to clean up the mess.

“They got both the plastic and metal which is easier to remove graffiti from, but the vast majority of it was on the rubber safety surface and it's looking like we are going to have to cover it for now and then replace the rubber safety surface,” said Lynch.

Police say as they were investigating, someone called in a tip saying they believed they knew who did it. That led police to Brandon Arnold.

“When they approached the individual and started talking to him, the individual immediately confessed to doing it,” said Captain Troy Foreman.

Police say they have tied Arnold to the vandalism at Liberty Park and Heritage Park, and believe he possibly damaged Davis Park too because similar spray paint was used. They say it's maddening to see this type of hate displayed in their small town.

“It's 2024 and you look at the things people are saying that was spray painted, but in addition to it, this is a playground, this is where kids go, kids who are innocent and now they are not able to go and play at the playground because now it's being roped off, we've got to try to get this stuff cleaned up,” said Foreman.

The parks will likely be closed for a few days.

“We're not going to open up the parks until we are able to cover up anything a child should not be reading,” said Lynch.

Police say they are also looking for other people who could have been involved. If you have any information, call Sapulpa Police.