Dover mayor lifts curfew on advice from the police chief
A man who had been following Dover protesters was arrested in connection with the vandalism to a law enforcement statue after his cellphone was found at the scene.
Dover Police charged Kyle Bullock, 42, in connection with vandalizing the Delaware Law Enforcement Memorial on Friday morning.
When Dover Police officers arrived on the scene, one of the items found was a cell phone. An ax was also found.
Officers were able to determine that the phone belonged to Bullock. Bullock returned and asked the officers if they had seen a cell phone, claiming he lost it in the area while participating in past protests.
Bullock quickly left the area and officers obtained warrants for his arrest. Officers were later able to obtain video evidence of the incident, a release stated.
Delaware State Police arrested Bullock at his Camden residence on Friday evening without incident.
Prior to the incident, Bullock had been seen in the area of protest activity in Dover and at the Dover Police Department and became disorderly toward law enforcement officials and civilian employees he encountered, the release stated.
While he was often seen in the area of protest activity, Bullock was not a part of the group of the protest group in the Dover area.
Several members of the protest group advised law enforcement throughout their demonstrations that Bullock was not with their group and asked law enforcement to be aware of that fact.
Bullock was committed to Sussex Correctional Institution for lack of a $5,100 cash bond on a single count of Felony level Criminal Mischief Over $5,000.
At around the time of the announcement of the arrest, Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen lifted the city’s long-running curfew that had followed a protest at the end of May.
Curfews, which were imposed during protests over the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police, have been blamed for causing more protests while heightening tensions with law enforcement
The vandalism of the statue honoring fallen officers drew widespread condemnation and may have contributed to a decision to remove two statues in Wilmington. Social media posts alluded to possible damage to statues of Christopher Columbus and Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Both were removed by early Friday night.
(See earlier story).
