A Falls man, with a reportedly lengthy criminal history, has now been charged in connection with an act of vandalism at the Field of Flags in Hyde Park on Thursday morning.
Falls police said Friday that they charged Chase M. Wilson, 25, 1622 Linwood Ave., Apt. 1, with a single count of second-degree criminal mischief, a class D felony. He reportedly pleaded not guilty to the charge during an arraignment in Falls City Court.
Wilson was described as “well known” to Falls police.
Police said they took Wilson into custody after they were alerted by a witness that a man was ripping the American flags and flagpoles, meant to honor those killed in action in America’s wars and the War on Terror, out of the ground and discarding them.
Police said they were called to the park at around 8:55 a.m. after dispatchers were called by a man working at the nearby Niagara Falls Veterans Memorial. The man said he saw Wilson destroying a number of flags.
When responding officers arrived in the park, they located Wilson near the Robbins Drive Bridge and took him into custody. The officers said they found 18 flag poles that had been bent or broken.
Kenny Tompkins, the former Falls council member who has spearheaded the memorial project for the last two years, said Wilson caused more than $1,500 in damage to the memorial site.
“It was very discouraging to lose 18 flags like that,” Tompkins said. “Each one of those flags represents a life lost defending this country. I don’t think of them as just flags, I look at them as human lives.”
By Thursday evening, the damaged flags had all been replaced, though Tompkins said repairing the vandalism had taken all of the extra flags and poles his organization had. He said the memorial will remain in place until July 5.
This year, 800 American flags stretch across a more than 300-by-300-foot plot of land in Hyde Park, adjacent to the Niagara Falls Veterans Memorial. Three hundred-thirty-two flags, two more than last year, honor service members and first responders from New York who have been killed in action since 9/11.
The remaining 468 flags honor service members from Niagara Falls, killed in action since the time of the city’s founding. The Falls Field of Flags is larger than a football field.
The memorial field is the work of the non-profit Hands Healing Heroes, with assistance from other community groups and what Tompkins calls “robust support” from the city.