Man arrested for scrawling ‘Kill Arabs’ on elementary school allegedly told cops he ‘did something stupid’

June 21, 2019 Noah Goldberg

Alan Tatten was arrested for spraypainting "Kill Arabs" and "Muslims suck" on an elementary school's door in Sheepshead Bay. Eagle photo by Noah Goldberg

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The Brooklyn man accused of spray painting “Kill Arabs” and “Muslims suck” on a Sheepshead Bay elementary school’s doors as well as on a Salvation Army store’s windows allegedly told police after his arrest that he regretted what he did.

Alan Tatten was charged with criminal mischief and aggravated harassment, both as hate crimes, for spray painting the statements on multiple entrances to P.S. 52. He lives just a block away from the school.

After he was arrested, Tatten told cops that he “did something stupid” and that he “shouldn’t have done it,” according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Criminal Court.

NYPD released a surveillance image of Alan Tatten, who was arrested for spraypainting "Kill Arabs" and "Muslims suck" on an elementary school's door in Sheepshead Bay. Image courtesy of NYPD — NYPD released this surveillance image of Alan Tatten. Image courtesy of NYPD

Tatten allegedly spray painted the hateful words on P.S. 52, then walked several blocks to a nearby Salvation Army, where he spray painted “Kill Arabs.”

While hate crimes were up drastically throughout the city through the beginning of June, anti-Muslim incidents were actually down 25 percent, from eight anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2018 to six in 2019, according to police statistics.