Full Notification

On Saturday, June 18th, around 9:00 pm, San Leandro police officers responded to the 15300 block of Inverness Street regarding a vandalized realtor sign in front of a house in the process of being sold. The spray-painted graffiti on the sign included a racial epithet within an anti-Asian message. Officers returned the next morning, around 7 am, regarding another anti-Asian graffiti message using the same epithet. This time the message was spray-painted on the garage door of the residence.
 
Since the realtor, property owners, and most recent tenants of the residence are all of Asian descent, this crime was investigated as a targeted hate crime.
 
This morning, at about 1:30 am, this investigation led officers to a residence on the 15300 block of Inverness Street. This residence was in close proximity to the victim's address. Over the course of this weekend, patrol officers established probable cause to arrest a suspect for these crimes.  Officers executed an arrest warrant and a search warrant and arrested 25-year-old Nicholas Swyers of San Leandro for hate crimes. Swyers was arrested without incident, and officers recovered evidence linking Swyers to the crime during the execution of their search warrant.
 
"I want to thank our weekend Patrol Division who worked around the clock on this investigation which resulted in a swift arrest."  
 
"This is an unfortunate reminder that hate and racism do exist. But, this is also a reminder that the San Leandro Police Department will unequivocally not stand for this behavior and dedicate the necessary resources to bring these perpetrators to justice," said Lieutenant Matthew Barajas.
 
This case will be presented to the Alameda County District Attorney's Office on Tuesday, June 21st.
 
Anyone with information regarding these incidents is urged to contact SLPD via any of the following methods: non-emergency line at(510)577-2740, anonymous tip line at (510)577-3278, or text-to-tip at 888777 (keyword: TipSLPolice).