Men arrested for defacing Miami Beach pride bench with antisemitic graffiti, cops say

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Two tourists are in a jail here in Miami. Police say they're behind disturbing graffiti found on a park bench in Miami Beach. And officers say it was all caught on surveillance video.

[00:00:10]You see them sitting there on that bench. Steve Litz is joining us now with the serious charges they're now facing.

[00:00:15]Steve, what you find out?

[00:00:18]Well, we talked with police this morning. They told us that one of these suspects said that he acted and he did this out of a thinking it was a joke.

[00:00:27]But gosh, this is no joke and so offensive to so many people out there, especially to Jewish people. This incident happened yesterday on a pride bench, which is located on 12th Street and Ocean Drive. Those pride benches, you may have seen them. They're pretty colorful and they celebrate the beach's LGBTQ community. We've obscured the graffiti. We don't want to give it a platform, frankly. But it's a swastika with the words "Adolf was here." And like many cities, Miami Beach has a network of security cameras. One captured the two men who police say committed the crime. The video shows one man with the marker and he was doing the scribbling of the hate message on the bench, according to investigators. And then police do say that the second man kind of leaned in a direction as to shield or block his friend so that nobody would see. And so the network of cameras on Miami Beach is impressive, especially on Ocean Drive. That camera system was able to track down these suspects right to their hotel. It was kind of easy. And then the that hotel was located on 7th and Ocean. Police arrested them as those suspects walked outside. Their names, Christoph Rehac and then Gunther Jerkstat. And they are visiting from Germany. One told investigators, as we said, he did it as a joke and did not intend it as a hate crime. But Daniel Frank with the Anti-Defamation League has this on swastikas, Hitler and humor.

[00:01:50]Motivation aside, words have consequences. And when anti-Semitic rhetoric is normalized or tolerated or amplified in the public discourse, it creates an environment conducive to violence against Jews, and we're seeing that.

[00:02:07]The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, they will investigate this along with police, and then the State Attorney's Office will decide if these uh misdemeanor criminal mischief charges will include an enhancement and upgrade those charges to include a hate crime enhancement. We'll let you know what happens on that right now.

[00:02:25]>> Both are still in jail. They're expected to post bond and walk out at some point today. We'll let you know what happens.

[00:02:30]Live in Northwest Miami-Dade, I'm Steve Litz, NBC 6 News.