Dalton Ray Mullis, 24, of Indian Land in South Carolina, was arrested on June 11 and charged with a hate crime for allegedly posting antisemitic materials, including a Totenkopf, on “multiple” sites in a Jewish complex in Charlotte, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.
Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, had a Totenkopf tattoo. He has said that he didn’t know it was a symbol which the Nazis embraced, although those around him, including an ex-girlfriend, have said that he bragged and knew about its Nazi association.
Mullis is accused of defacing buildings in the Jewish Community Center in the Foundation of Shalom Park, which also includes the Charlotte Jewish Day School, Holocaust Memorial and “other facilities occupied by multiple organizations that operate Jewish religious, cultural and educational programs,” , on Jan. 19, per charging documents.
He remains in custody and faces up to 20 years in prison.
He allegedly vandalized the school, Holocaust memorial and a staff building “by affixing threatening, antisemitic flyers,” which “depicted a noose, a swastika, and a Totenkopf or ‘death’s head,’ which is historically associated with the German Nazi party and SS,” the Justice Department said. “It is further alleged that surveillance cameras on the property captured Mullis spraying one of the entrances to the CJDS with what appears to be an adhesive spray and placing the antisemitic flyer onto the door.”
“Posting Nazi and lynching symbols on the Jewish Community Center is pure hate and it’s disgusting,” stated Russ Ferguson, U.S. attorney for the western district of North Carolina. “This is America, which was founded on the free exercise of religion, and people ought to be free to worship without being threatened.”
