A 39-year-old man was arrested and charged with burglary, theft and criminal mischief on Sunday after breaking into several businesses on Monument Square in Portland, police said.
Jimmy Burnett broke windows and other items to get into David’s Restaurant and The Lady in the Moon, a boutique store, according to Portland police. Burnett, for whom no address was given, faces three counts of criminal mischief and one count each of the other two offenses. He was being held Sunday night at the Cumberland County Jail on $1,500 cash bail.
Alex Tirrell helps tape the storefront window of his friend’s boutique, The Lady in the Moon, in Monument Square on Sunday morning after it was vandalized during the night. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
Officers responded to reports of vandalism around 6:10 a.m. Sunday and found that several business had damaged storefronts, including broken windows, police spokesman David Singer said. The Lady in the Moon had a large hole smashed in a window, and other businesses had overturned and damaged exterior tables and chairs, photos of the scene show.
David Turin, owner of David’s Restaurant, said his business would have to replace two $2,500 tempered-glass windows and some damaged tables and chairs. But he said he thought of the incident as a “tragedy” because he had heard that Burnett was suffering from a mental health crisis.
“It is too bad, really,” Turin said. “I just can’t even imagine the indignity and the trauma of someone experiencing that kind of stuff.”
Turin said Monument Square has seen a number of similar incidents during the pandemic, which has put pressure on mental health services and services for those experiencing homelessness, some of whom congregate in the square.
“It’s been this kind of crescendo of difficulties going on,” he said.
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