Jonathan Tijerina Accused of Defacing NYC 9/11 Memorial in Protest
A gun-control activist was arrested after allegedly vandalizing the 9/11 Memorial Reflecting Pool with red spray paint in what police described as a daylight political protest.
Jonathan Andrew Tijerina, 31, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and making graffiti after allegedly marking part of the North Tower reflecting pool with the name of his website Monday evening, police said, according to CBS News New York.
The red-painted message, “Juststopkillingkids.com,” was written across the names of dozens of victims engraved at the memorial site, which stands on the footprint of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
Tijerina claimed responsibility for the alleged desecration and posted video footage appearing to show him carrying out the act.
Several videos uploaded to Instagram reportedly documented the protest from beginning to end. The footage showed a man approaching the memorial, taking a spray can from his bag and writing the message across multiple panels.
Police said the damage caused by the alleged vandalism exceeded $2,500. Tijerina also identified himself as the person responsible.
“My name is Jon Tijerina and I’ve just spray-painted ‘just stop killing kids’ on the 9/11 Memorial,” Tijerina said in the video.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum said the spray paint was removed and the affected section was restored.
“The 9/11 Memorial is a sacred place of reflection at the heart of a rebuilt World Trade Center that honors the 2,983 victims killed in the September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 terrorist attacks. Yesterday’s brief incident was swiftly addressed by security staff and law enforcement, and the impacted area was immediately restored to its commemorative state,” a spokesperson told CBS New York.
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Tijerina’s website described “nonviolent civil resistance” as the central strategy of his campaign, arguing that such action could help change laws and society.
He portrayed his arrest as a political victory and sought to draw the attention of President Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“On October 26, 2026, Jon Tijerina was arrested for spraying red paint on Freedom Tower in NYC. He is demanding that Trump and Mamdani enforce common-sense, highly popular demands with respect to guns such as Universal Background Checks and a National Gun Registry,” Tijerina’s organization wrote in a follow-up post.
He pointed to the mass shooting that followed the Florida A&M homecoming football game as one reason for the alleged vandalism.
Tijerina’s “civil resistance organization,” known as “Just Stop Killing Kids,” listed two demands: universal background checks and a universal gun registry.
“We have two specific, achievable demands. Both have majority public support. Both already exist in other high-income countries. Neither requires repealing the Second Amendment. We are not asking for the impossible — we are asking for what every other wealthy democracy already has,” the website states.
Tijerina also complained Monday that one of his previous political demonstrations, a seven-day fast, had failed to attract attention.
That alleged weeklong protest called for the city to make 2 million affordable housing units available within five years.
