Los Angeles County officials are trotting out two $20,000 rewards for leads to the arrest and conviction of those involved in a pair of cemetery vandalism incidents last month.
On Jan. 5, Woodlawn Celestial Gardens in Compton, outside of Los Angeles, was attacked, the cemetery explained in a post on Facebook.
The cemetery, one of the county’s oldest, has graves dating to the 1880s, including those for Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans.
Multiple bronze memorial plaques were removed and other structures were damaged, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell while introducing the motion creating the rewards at a meeting Tuesday.
“This is supposed to be sacred land, and people are supposed to be at eternal rest,” Woodlawn Celestial Gardens owner Celestina Bishop told KCAL-TV.
Then, on Jan. 12, Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Carson, also near Los Angeles, was hit. Bronze memorial markers and plaques were targeted. A 90-year-old statue of President Abraham Lincoln was also damaged.
Among the stolen plaques was a bronze item honoring local World War II veterans installed in 1949 following a donation from heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. The estimated losses for Lincoln Cemetery are over $2 million, Ms. Mitchell said.