Person of Interest in Custody After Burning Cross in Chicago Park

Police say a person of interest is in custody after a six-foot cross was set on fire in a well-known Chicago park in what police feared was a hate crime.

The burning cross was discovered June 9 in Grant Park, where Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech when he was elected the nation’s first Black president in 2008.

A 21-year-old college student, identified as Merlin Lu, told WMAQ-TV that he was the shirtless person in an image distributed by police while they were looking for a suspect. Police did not immediately say Tuesday if he's the person in custody.

The student said he was protesting President Donald Trump and not making a racist statement.

“I did know about this historical relevance beforehand. But I didn’t know the severity, how racially motivated it may seem from what I did,” the man told the TV station. “Cause my protest has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with gender.”

Cross burnings in the U.S. have historically been seen as symbols of hate and intimidation against Black people and have often been connected to the Ku Klux Klan.

The Chicago Police Department's communications office confirmed that a person was in custody in connection with the case, but no other details were released. An email seeking comment from the prosecutor's office was sent Tuesday.

“I can’t speak to anyone’s motives. We can only speak to the impact. And the impact was devastating," Mayor Brandon Johnson, who is Black, said when asked about the cross and the man’s remarks to WMAQ.

The man interviewed by the TV station said he was protesting the “ruling class” and Christian nationalists who support Trump. He said he put a red MAGA hat on the cross.

The man said he doesn't consider what he did a hate crime.

“I understand why it was interpreted that way, and I apologize for that, but no, the intent was not there,” he said.

Gina Miranda Samuels, faculty director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, said the man seemed sincere that he was not trying to send a hateful message to Black people.

Nonetheless, she added, “it says a lot about how uninformed people can be” about certain symbols “and that it would be acceptable to use a symbol of hatred and terror in this way.”