Pranks are one thing, but more than $5,500 in burglary and vandalism are something else entirely. That’s what three Bartlett youths discovered recently when they allegedly did damages at Easthill Baptist Church and a nearby neighborhood.
The Bartlett Police Department has provided details about the incident, which was reported briefly in The Bartlett Express on Nov. 2: An officer responded to a witness’s vandalism report at the church, located at 7050 St Elmo Road, just before 8:30 p.m. Oct. 23.
She reported seeing several suspects on their livestreamed Snapchat video as they vandalized the vehicles. She knew two of them as neighborhood children, the youngest 11 years old, and she directed BPD to one of their homes.
The responding officers investigating the crime scene found damage to vehicles in the church parking lot and to a shed on the property.
Damages included shattered glass (one windshield, side windows and side-entry door) and flattened tires for two church-owned vehicles, $3,000, plus a scattering of trash inside one vehicle; destruction of a lock on the shed’s door, $50; and a shattered window and flattened tires for two vehicles belonging to victim Richard Moore, $2,500.
Moore, who lives on the 3900 block of Norton Lane, approached the officers at the scene to report his property’s vandalism. One suspect admitted damaging Moore’s property, but the other suspect in custody denied doing it.
The first two suspects were a black male and a Hispanic male seen on the video throwing rocks at the glass, and officers took both into custody. They implicated a third child who was not in custody at the time of the police report.
Charges against the juveniles include one count of burglary, one count of burglary of a motor vehicle, and four counts of vandalism over $1,000. All victims said they wish to prosecute.
