‘ABAR’ is behind bars

By Terry Murry on Thursday, June 9th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

HERMISTON – Abraham M. Arellano, 25, of Umatilla has been arrested by Hermiston police for multiple acts of graffiti in the city and surrounding communities. HPD Chief Jason Edmiston said the graffiti is not gang related and it’s been a problem for about 18 months.

“The city of Hermiston as well as surrounding cities have been completely annihilated, for lack of better words, by a tagger who uses the tag ‘ABAR.’” Edmiston said.

Hermiston and Umatilla police served a search warrant and report they found evidence against Arellano yesterday and took him into custody today (Thursday).

While a single act of graffiti is a misdemeanor, Hermiston police are working with the district attorney’s office to hold the suspect accountable for the sum total of the damage done which would move the charge up to a felony.

“Basically it will be an aggregate charge of all the taggings he’s done over the last 18 months or so,” Edmiston said.

Edmiston said a social media account pointed detectives in the right direction. Initially the search for the tagger began with younger people.

“The reality is we’ve been looking for somebody who might be in high school, so we’ve been working with the school resource officers,” he said. “As it turns out, this person is 25 years old and living in Umatilla.”