Three arrested in Peoria on hate crime charges for allegedly stealing, burning pride flags
A pair of Peoria men and a Goodfield man were arrested Thursday for two separate incidents in which pride flags were stolen from residences and, in one case, burned.
Andrew D. Gohring, 19, Noah Gohring, 21, both of Peoria and Nathaniel E. Sheppard, 18, of Goodfield, were arrested Thursday in relation to the two incidents, which took place Sunday and Thursday nights in the Uplands just north of Bradley University.
The Peoria Police Department said that they responded Sunday to the intersection of Columbia Terrace and Glenwood Avenue after receiving numerous complaints of pride flags being stolen that night. Surveillance footage recovered from the scene showed the suspects committing the alleged thefts.
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At 10:49 p.m. Thursday, police responded to the 1000 block of North Glenwood Avenue after a caller reported three men burning a flag. When officers arrived, they saw the charred remnants of a multi-colored flag in the middle of the street.
Witnesses told police that three men stole a flag from a home and set it on fire before fleeing on foot, going west on Columbia Terrace toward Parkside Drive across from Laura Bradley Park.
Police received support from a violence reduction task force that saturated the area and arrested one suspect in the 2000 block of West Laura Avenue in West Peoria. The task force established a perimeter in the area to find the other two suspects, with a drone and a K-9 unit helping as well.
They garnered enough information to lead them to the 2000 block of West Sherman Avenue, where the other two men were found in a home and taken into custody.
Andrew D. Gohring and Sheppard each received hate crime charges, along with criminal damage to property and theft for their roles in Thursday's incident. Noah Gohring was charged with a hate crime as well as 12 counts of theft for his alleged role in the earlier incident on Sunday.
The three are currently being held in the Peoria County Jail. They have yet to appear in Peoria County Circuit Court on their charges.
Anyone with further information on the incidents is asked to contact PPD at (309) 673-4521 or provide an anonymous tip through their Tip411 service. They can also contact Crime Stoppers at (309) 673-9000.
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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Three arrested on hate crime charges for burning pride flags in Peoria
