Overview
- The 15-foot stainless-steel display, installed in mid-February by ASU students and volunteers, was found Tuesday cut free, lights torn off, and pushed over.
- Tempe police are investigating the case as criminal damage and have not announced an arrest.
- Organizers say the $20,000 piece had faced repeated tampering, including disconnected lights and a stolen plaque.
- City leaders condemned the destruction as hateful, and the project’s chief designer described it as an intentional attack on an Islamic symbol.
- Officials are boosting patrols at religious sites, following separate felony charges after a March 7 paintball attack on a Phoenix mosque.