Man suspected in paintball vandalism of Asian woman's home arrested

A 19-year-old man was arrested Sunday on charges related to vandalizing the house of an Asian woman and her husband in the Santa Clara neighborhood, according to the Lane County Sheriff's Office. 

He was arrested by the sheriff's office for third-degree criminal mischief, according to Sgt. Thomas Speldrich, and he has not been arraigned yet. 

Xia Wang, whose house was shot with 29 red paintballs on July 16 in a drive-by incident, said the incident was a hate crime and that she was targeted as the only person of color in her neighborhood, having also had her yard defaced previously. 

Deputies made an arrest after getting a warrant to search a Santa Clara residence.  They found evidence including a paintball gun and the suspected vehicle seen in security camera footage.  

Speldrich said the findings from the investigation and evidence do not meet the criteria of a bias crime at this point. The sheriff's office still  gathering and analyzing evidence to see if any other charges would be added, he said. He stressed the decision whether to charge with a bias crime comes down to the evidence of the case. 

"It's totally easy to infer, but of course we're not able to operate on how we feel or what the gut instinct is, we have to operate on what we can prove," Speldrich said. 

The suspect was booked into Lane County Jail on Sunday and later released that day. 

Asked about her reaction to the arrest, Wang said she anticipates being disappointed and not having the case found to be a bias incident by the District Attorney's office. 

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"If this is not a hate crime, what is a hate crime, right?" she said. "But the system won't be protecting me. I know the frustration I'm going to go through."

Wang added that she first heard of the arrest from a Lane County commissioner in an email Monday, and said the suspect was someone who lived several blocks away from her in Santa Clara. 

Louis Krauss covers breaking news for The Register-Guard. Contact him at lkrauss@registerguard.com or 541-521-2498, and follow him on Twitter @LouisKraussNews