Police Investigating Mural Vandalism as Hate Crime

Published on October 09, 2025

Palo Alto, CA – Police are investigating a vandalism case that occurred at a business as a hate crime, after an unknown suspect vandalized a mural. 

On Tuesday, October 7, 2025, at about 9:01 a.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call of a vandalism that had just been discovered at a business on the 900 block of East Charleston Road.

The investigation revealed that at some point between October 6 and October 7, an unknown suspect had spray painted derogatory language on a mural that was painted on the side of the business.  The language was directed towards people of Israeli descent.  The damage to the mural was estimated at $2000.  There is no suspect information although the investigation is on-going.

Officers will thoroughly investigate any reported hate crime in Palo Alto.  You are welcome to read a blog post from the City entitled “Steps the Community Can Take to Help Stop Hate Crimes.”  The City of Palo Alto strongly denounces hate crimes of all kinds and encourages members of our community to promptly report these incidents by calling our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413, or 9-1-1 if it is an emergency.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.