Police Chief: Graffiti Vandal Faces 10-30 Years

Concord Police believe they have the person involved in a number of graffiti vandalism that hit South End homes of refugee families in 2011 and 2012.

Raymond Stevens, 42, of Pembroke, was arrested on Oct. 15, and charged with a felony criminal mischief charge.

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The investigation, according to Chief John Duval, was a multi-agency investigation, involving a number of agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Pembroke and Nashua police departments. Stevens, who also uses the name Raynard Stevens, faces between 10 and 30 years in prison.

Duval commended his investigatory team who “put forth all available resources” to solve the crime.

“All crime is unacceptable … these particular crimes are deplorable because the victims were targeted,” he said. “No family living in the city, or anywhere in America, should live in fear that someone would write a hateful message on the walls of their home while they sleep or any other time, for that matter.”

One of the families has moved out of the city, according to Duval.

Duval said while the United States is a free country, Stevens “could have openly debated their views in a public forum and it would not have been a crime,” but the minute he allegedly trespassed onto private property and targeted the individuals with the graffiti, “it’s not only cowardly, it’s a felony level offense.”

Duval said investigators were looking for any lead possible during the course of looking into the cases. Tips from the public drew cold, he said, adding that it was “a classic case of leaving not leaving any rock unturned.” The writing, he said, was so distinctive in nature, that even though it was a needle in a haystack, the detective involved in the case looked at every possible angle. Duval commended everyone who worked on the case.

Duval didn’t know exactly how much time was spent on the case but agreed that it could have been in the thousands of hours. The investigatory work could be compared to time put into a rape or homicide case. However, he said, it was worth the time his team took to get the person who wrote the graffiti.

“It didn’t matter how many staff hours it would take to solve this,” he said. "They had my support to do whatever it takes." 

Honore Murenzi, the executive director of the New African Americans, who works with refugee families, said, unfortunately, at least one family has moved out of Concord due to the graffiti incident. He said it was difficult, as someone who assists refugee families, to tell them that it would be OK to stay.

Murenzi said it was a great feeling of relief for many of the families, especially since they had traveled so far to settle in a country and a community that they perceived as safe.

“Some people thought that the next step would be killing,” he said. “When they come here, they come for safety and love … because, where they come from, they lost love. When they come here, it’s about searching for love. When someone writes such things … where are we going to go now? We are almost at the end (of the world) … where next?”