Vandals spray paint 9/11 memorial in West Windsor

An investigation continues in West Windsor, after vandals covered the township's Sept. 11 memorial with spray paint last weekend.

Red paint was discovered on a World Trade Center steel beam given to West Windsor by the New York City Fire Department, as well as on a bench, tile flooring, a walkway and several stones surrounding reflecting pools. A partial translation of some of the graffiti, which was written in Cyrillic characters, revealed a name believed to be "Bozhen."

"This made me very, very angry when I heard about the story," said West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh. "We have to do whatever we can to catch whoever did it."

He said if anyone has information about the incident, they should call the police department directly, at (609) 799-1222 or the township offices at (609) 799-2400.

Hsueh said the memorial has special significance to the community because it signifies West Windsor will never forget the victims. He also said he has been in direct contact with the family members of those memorialized.

The memorial honors the seven West Windsor residents who died in the 9/11 attacks: Jeffrey M. Chairnoff, Michael J. Cunningham, Peter Edward Mardikian, Patrick Sean Murphy, Edward R. Pykon, John J. Ryan, Jr. and David S. Suarez.

"I've been saying we have to put the monitoring camera over there," he said. "I really wanted to make sure we catch whoever did it. I have personal feelings about the whole thing. This is a holy ground, it touched me very, very deeply."

The mayor said the West Windsor memorial may have been the first memorial in the world to be completed following the terror attacks. "Immediately after, we decided we are going to do something about it, and the whole memorial was actually finished in seven months," Hsueh said.