A 21-year-old man who admitted setting fire to a cross in a Chicago park last week was in custody Wednesday on hate crime charges, Chicago police said.
Merlin Lu was arrested Monday on four felony counts and four misdemeanor counts related to the incident on June 9, in which he is alleged to have “committed a hate crime by starting a fire that caused damage to city property,” police said in a statement Wednesday.
The large cross was found burning in Grant Park, prompting police to search for the perpetrator and release a photo of the man they said was responsible.
Lu told NBC Chicago on Monday that he was responsible for the cross burning, which has a long history in acts of racial terrorism against Black people, but said he intended it to be a protest of the federal government, not a hate crime, the station reported.
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Lu, a senior at the University of Illinois Chicago, said he placed a red hat on top of the cross to protest President Donald Trump’s administration.
Asked how he landed on burning a cross, Lu told the station that it “came up to my head one day.”
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The four misdemeanor counts involve breach of peace, reckless conduct, damage to property and cross burning to intimidate, according to the police statement.
Lu was in custody Wednesday night. A detention hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, police said in the statement announcing his arrest.
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