FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) - Police arrested a former Army medic after a vandal broke windows and left a Bible at a Colorado mosque - an act that led to an outpouring of support for Muslims, authorities said.
Joseph Scott Giaquinto, 35, was taken into custody Monday on suspicion of committing a crime motivated by bias and other allegations just hours after police released surveillance video and asked for the public's help identifying a hoodie-wearing man seen picking up a stone and kicking a door at the Islamic Center in Fort Collins.
The suspect's father, Michael Giaquinto, told the Coloradoan his son was an Army medic who served in Iraq and Korea and moved last year to Fort Collins - the home of Colorado State University about 60 miles north of Denver.
"No matter what we find out happened, my son is a good man," he told the newspaper. "He served his country well. Even if he was involved, and I'm not saying he was, it would just indicate that he was in a kind of a bad place."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, said there have been 35 attacks on mosques so far this year - ranging from arson to torn Qurans - compared with 19 between January and March last year.
The group believes people who may have hidden their anti-Muslim views in the past have been emboldened to act by the election of President Donald Trump, who called for a ban on Muslims entering the country during his campaign.