Naval Academy graduate charged with hate crime for tearing down LGBTQ+ pride flag

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A U.S. Naval Academy graduate ripped down a tattoo shop's LGBTQ+ pride flag and put it in the trash, Annapolis police said in documents charging him with a hate crime.

Charlie Garrett, co-owner of the Dapper Dog Tattoo Shop, told police Friday morning that the store had been vandalized. He said it was the third time someone had removed the flag, which reads, “ABIDE NO HATRED.” In response, Garrett said he installed a security camera.

Closed-circuit video footage showed a man in a black puffer-style vest walking toward the store at approximately 1 a.m. Friday, police said, before he “forcefully ripped” the flag from above the shop’s awning. According to charging documents, the man was then seen putting it into a trash can.

Caroline Norman Frost, an attorney representing the man, told The Associated Press that her client “has no hate towards any person or protected class.”

“He certainly does not have any dislike or ill will towards the groups involved in this case, and this is a misunderstanding, and I think that that will all come to light when this case is complete with a disposition,” Norman Frost said.

The tattoo shop posted a photo of the man on social media and asked for help identifying him.

Police wrote in charging documents that the suspect is a Dallas resident who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and graduated from the academy, The Baltimore Sun reported. According to a Marine Corps spokesperson, he served from 2004 to 2013.

A woman who worked at a nearby restaurant contacted authorities Saturday morning and told police she had served the man in the video the night before, according to the charging documents.

After providing police with the man's name and credit card receipt, the woman said she “immediately” recognized him from the Dapper Dog post, police said.

He was also charged with malicious destruction of property. Both it and the hate crime charge, which in this case relates to property crimes, are misdemeanors.