Overview
- Prosecutors say Merlin Lu assembled a wooden cross in Grant Park, doused it with kerosene, topped it with a red MAGA‑style hat, and set it ablaze on June 9 while leaving the scene.
- Investigators recovered a hammer, nails, a lighter, a kerosene bottle cap traced to a Home Depot purchase, and surveillance images that they say link Lu to the park and the purchase.
- Lu contacted NBC Chicago and admitted he set the cross as a political protest aimed at President Trump and Christian nationalists while denying a racial motive.
- Cook County prosecutors charged Lu with multiple felonies and misdemeanors, including two felony hate‑crime counts, arson, and cross burning to intimidate.
- At a June 18–19 detention hearing Judge D’Anthony Thedford declined to hold Lu pretrial, citing lack of clear proof of a hate crime while ordering release conditions that ban possession of fire‑starting materials and require pretrial reporting.