Police Catch Tagger 'Red-Handed'

A tagger who police said came to Oak Lawn with the express purpose of tagging a building in the 4200 block of West 95th Street was caught in the act on March 4.

Louis Rivera, 24, of the 4900 block of South Rockwell Avenue in Chicago, was charged with criminal damage to property.

A caller phoned 911 to report a “defacement in progress,” saying that two people were spray painting the wall of a commercial office, reports said.

Police found Rivera nearby and the caller was brought to the scene and positively identified him as one of the culprits she saw painting the wall.

Police said Rivera had red paint on his fingers and found a can of red paint in his pants pocket. Red was one of the colors used to paint the words “DEE” and “ZAR” on the wall.

Rivera admitted to intentionally coming to Oak Lawn to spray paint his tagger name, “DEE,” on the wall to gain notoriety among other street taggers, police said.

Rivera is scheduled to appear in court on April 18 in Bridgeview.