A gun-control activist allegedly defaced the 9/11 Memorial Reflecting Pool with red spray paint in a daytime protest aimed at drawing attention to his political campaign.
Jonathan Andrew Tijerina, 31, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and graffiti after allegedly marking part of the North Tower reflecting pool with the name of his website Monday evening, police said, according to CBS News New York.
The red message, “Juststopkillingkids.com,” was painted over the names of dozens of victims engraved at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Tijerina appeared to acknowledge responsibility for the alleged vandalism, sharing video footage of himself carrying out the protest.
Several videos posted to Instagram reportedly showed the entire incident, including Tijerina approaching the memorial, removing a spray can from his bag and writing across multiple panels.
Police said the damage was estimated at more than $2,500, while Tijerina identified himself as the person responsible for the markings.
“My name is Jon Tijerina and I’ve just spray-painted ‘just stop killing kids’ on the 9/11 Memorial,” he said in the footage.
Officials with the 9/11 Memorial and Museum said the red paint was removed and the affected area had been restored.
“The 9/11 Memorial is a sacred place of reflection at the heart of a rebuilt World Trade Center that honors the 2,983 victims killed in the September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 terrorist attacks. Yesterday’s brief incident was swiftly addressed by security staff and law enforcement, and the impacted area was immediately restored to its commemorative state,” a spokesperson told CBS New York.
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Tijerina’s website describes “nonviolent civil resistance” as the central strategy for changing laws and influencing society.
He portrayed his arrest as a successful act of protest and sought to bring the issue to the attention of President Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“On October 26, 2026, Jon Tijerina was arrested for spraying red paint on Freedom Tower in NYC. He is demanding that Trump and Mamdani enforce common-sense, highly popular demands with respect to guns such as Universal Background Checks and a National Gun Registry,” Tijerina’s organization wrote in a subsequent post.
He pointed to the mass shooting that followed a Florida A&M homecoming football game as one reason for staging the alleged protest.
The “civil resistance organization” behind Tijerina’s campaign lists two goals under its “Just Stop Killing Kids” initiative: universal background checks and a national gun registry.
“We have two specific, achievable demands. Both have majority public support. Both already exist in other high-income countries. Neither requires repealing the Second Amendment. We are not asking for the impossible — we are asking for what every other wealthy democracy already has,” the website states.
Tijerina also said Monday that a separate political protest, including a recent seven-day fast, had failed to attract the attention he expected.
That alleged weeklong protest called for the creation of 2 million affordable housing units in New York City within five years.