Man arrested for vandalism at Miami Jewish bagel shop – NBC 6 South Florida

A man has been arrested and charged with vandalizing a Jewish-owned bagel shop in downtown Miami.

Kenneth Guerrero, 28, was charged with criminal mischief after vandalizing Holy Bagels & Pizzeria at 93 NW 1st Street in June.

Photos from the scene showed the words “Free Palestine” and “Stop Genocide” spray-painted on the front of the restaurant. A security camera from inside the store captured someone spraying the windows and doors, then tearing down a “Stand with Israel” banner hanging from the front.

“It’s devastating,” owner Josh Nodel said at the time.

Last fall, vandals did the same thing twice at Nodel’s second bagel shop in Miami Beach.

“We have become targets of hate attacks because they know we are Jews, that we support Israel,” Nodel said.

He said that vandalism does not help the Palestinian people.

“I don’t think so, I think it just hurts them,” Nodel said.

The owner was heartened when, after the vandalism, high-ranking officials showed up to clean up the mess: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and federal judge Roy Altman.

“My grandparents lived through the ’40s in Europe and that’s how it started, spray-painting Jewish businesses, we’re not going to let anti-Semites silence us here, convince us that the West is corrupt or evil,” Altman said, explaining why he came to help.

“I think it’s meant to scare people, to try to create the impression that we don’t control our city, that our city could be taken over by acts of illegality and hatred, and that’s unacceptable to us,” Suarez said.

As Suarez and Altman helped scrub red paint from a storefront, security company owner Auggie Mejia offered free patrols.

“What they did here was a cowardly act,” Mejia said. “We don’t like cowards in my business, we don’t like guys like that, people like that, so we’re just here to help.”