Suspect caught ‘red handed’ after vandalizing Dripping Springs City Hall

Late into the night on Tuesday, March 9 and into the early morning hours of Wednesday March 10, Dripping Springs City Hall was the target of vandalism. A window was broken and “offensive” words were spray-painted in red on the exterior walls of City Hall. The often profane words accused the city of racism along with other messages such as “Black Lives Matter,” “Anarchhy (sic)” and “city of racists.”

On the morning of March 10, the city released a statement about the incident. “We are deeply concerned about this vandalism.” Dripping Springs Mayor Bill Foulds, Jr. said. “The city council and our city employees have always supported all people of every culture, background, and race and we do not tolerate behavior that perpetuates hate against any individual or group.”

Hope Boatwright, who works for the Visitors Bureau in Marketing and Communications in the portable building nearby, said it was an emotional and anxiety-producing drive in to work that morning as she began to see the red graffiti letters defacing the front, side and back of City Hall. “I had heard that it had been vandalized,” Boatwright said. “As I drove down Mercer St. I could see the red spray paint. It looked like one of the windows had been knocked out, and it was just absolute discomfort. It’s incredibly alarming... Dripping Springs has always been a safe place, and you feel comfortable being here even at night and never worry about your safety.”

Surveillance cameras captured the crime on video, and the city released images on its Facebook page of a younger, white female believed to be responsible for the vandalism. The Hays County Sheriff’s Office received numerous tips about the identity of the suspect. Further investigation by the Criminal Investigations Division led to the location of Bonnie Laurel Gibson, 26, in Dripping Springs on March 11. Investigators made contact with Gibson, discovered paint on her hands, on the outside of her vehicle and in the interior of the vehicle that matched the color of the graffiti on the city hall building. Gibson was arrested on a warrant for Criminal Mischief, a State Jail Felony, and transported to the Hays County Jail. A bond has not been set as of the time of publication.

In a phone interview with the Dripping Springs Century News a day later, Mayor Foulds added the city believes this is an isolated event. When he drove to City Hall to view the graffiti that morning, Foulds said his feelings were that “it wasn’t a racially motivated type thing.”

“Even though what was written there looked terrible, sounded terrible, I didn’t feel like that was really what was going on,” Foulds said. “Something else was going on. It never crossed my mind that we have people in the community that would be so rude. I am very happy to find out that I think I’m right with what we have found out, and it didn’t really have anything to do with race or inequality or anything along those lines. We don’t feel anyone was targeted. We don’t feel like there is any security threat that we need to make our staff aware of.”

The city was able to quickly remove all of the graffiti. Maintenance workers were on site throughout that morning, and by 11 a.m. had removed the spray paint from the glass entrance doors. The city also received numerous offers of help from the community to assist with the cleanup process, and they accepted the offer from Elite Blasting and Coatings of Wimberley, which donated sandblasting services.

“Jeff Wrobel and Shawn Meyette from Elite Blasting and Coatings came and made our little City Hall beautiful again,” read a statement posted to the City’s Facebook page. “And they did it out of the kindness of their hearts, with no charge to the City. Thank you! It doesn’t stop there. A BIG thank you to EVERYONE who reached out. We had people posting on social media offering to help. We had phone calls and emails from strangers asking how they could donate and asking what they could do to help clean up. It absolutely warms our hearts from the outpouring of kindness.”

“We saw the photos of the unfortunate vandalism and words of hate on a public building in close proximity to a school and knew we had to act quick to help our community,” Wrobel said. “Our small towns are growing so fast, but that does not mean we cannot keep the small town feel by helping thy neighbor and simply supporting each other. We have been blessed by having amazing customers in this community, and that gave us the means to help the city maintenance team erase the vandalism. The words of hate were literally blasted away. Our business is to blast away the old, the ugly, and the damaged to make way for a new, more beautiful future.”