The murals purpose and theme is to build community identity with the residents of the Cascade and Benson Hill neighborhoods, say the cops.
"The mural's purpose and theme is to build community identity with the residents of the Cascade and Benson Hill neighborhoods," say the cops.

On Thursday a King County judge found probable cause to hold a Renton man on suspicion of second-degree assault and second-degree "malicious mischief" after he allegedly pulled a gun on some park employees and an artist painting a mural in the town last month.

In an interview with police, the artist said she'd been working on the mural for about a month. During that time, a guy in a silver car drove by at least twice and shouted, "All lives matter." Then one day in late September he stopped his car and shouted "Trump" and the dumb slogan. After the man stopped, the artist walked toward him to see if they could have a conversation, but then the guy "raised a pistol, racked the slide, and yelled 'all lives matter'" again, cops say. Believing he was going to shoot her, she ran for cover, but then the man ultimately drove off.

A little over a week later, someone vandalized the mural with the words "TRUMP," "LAM," and "BOO." Cops tied the "LAM" tag to another instance of "LAM" being tagged on a pet store earlier in the week, and then eventually to a 2018 report of a guy in the same silver car tagging other vehicles in a casino parking lot. The suspect wrote "Trump" over a Canadian flag sticker, "Trump" over a 2016 Bernie sticker, and "die u communist" over a "my dinosaur ate your jesus fish" sticker, according to a report.

Police ended up arresting the guy in his home on Wednesday.

In another incident police believe was unrelated, earlier this month a man in a "red and black classic muscle car" pulled up next to the artist, yelled "fuck you" at her a lot, and then drove away. A cop pursued the guy and pulled him over. The guy then "immediately exited the vehicle and started yelling that he hated the Renton Police," according to the report. After the cop explained the reason for the stop, the suspect said, "I say whatever I want, she is painting that for the n*ggers and I hate n*ggers, all my neighbors do too."

I've written to the artist and will update this post when I hear back. Until then, keep your head on a swivel, Renton!