St. Pete Pride reflects after mural was vandalized

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — St. Petersburg Police arrested one person they believe is responsible for doing burnouts on a Pride mural.

The painted intersection has been decorating Central Avenue and 25th Street since 2020.

The mural looks new today, but just before Pride Month, police said the entire mural was marked up and cost more than $1,500 to restore.

“It was a reminder of why we still need to have pride organizations like ourselves to remind people that this is still a continual fight,” said Dr. Byron Green-Calisch, with St. Pete Pride.

St. Pete arrested 18-year-old Christian Maier for defacing and damaging the roadway mural.

“This is an important mural for our pride community and it’s part of city property. It’s a part of our artwork downtown and he deliberately did donuts all around the intersection and marked up the entire intersection,” said Yolanda Fernandez, with St. Pete Police.

The mural was restored within hours thanks to volunteers, just in time for Pride Month celebrations.

“I cannot express my immense level of gratitude to the people that reached out and said: hey, we are ready to get back in there,” said Dr. Green-Calisch.

Dr. Byron Green-Calisch, President of St. Pete Pride, said he doesn’t think selecting the mural was a coincidence.

“You desecrated a piece of art that means a lot to this community. I have to hold on to that, all the decisions you made, this did feel intentional to come to this very specific one,” he said.

Right now, Maier is facing two felony charges: criminal mischief and racing on a street.

Yolanda Fernandez, with the Police Department, said the criminal mischief charge was upgraded from a misdemeanor to a felony because the damages were more than $1,000 to fix.

Police are still investigating and working with the State Attorney’s Office to determine if charges will be enhanced.

“It has to meet certain criteria in order for it to be enhanced with a hate crime, at this time it’s not,” Fernandez said.

St. Pete Police said they had a lot of surveillance footage that helped them make the arrest.

They are currently investigating another occurrence of tire marks on the mural, just days before the big vandalism.

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