Steamboat police believe they know who burned a large swastika into a picnic bench at Memorial Park late last month, and a rash of similar incidents have left local officials concerned about a wider trend involving a contingent of local high school students who subscribe to supremacist ideology.<\/p>\n
According to Steamboat Springs Police Chief Mark Beckett, the department submitted a criminal mischief charge to the District Attorney earlier this week in relation to the Memorial Park incident, which he said happened in the after-school hours of Aug. 30 and involved a male Steamboat Springs High School student.<\/p>\n
Beckett said detectives were able to identify the student \u201cwithin a couple of days\u201d before working through the process of collecting witness statements and contacting parents.<\/p>\n
Routt County District Attorney Matt Karzen\u2019s office confirmed it received the police report of the juvenile suspected of committing a \u201cbias motivated crime and criminal mischief.\u201d In a statement, however, Karzen said the DA\u2019s office would \u201cdecline to file a juvenile petition or offer diversion based on the lack of admissible evidence that (the) suspect was the person who committed the crime in question.\u201d<\/p>\n