Woman Arrested for Green Paint Vandalism at National Cathedral

Updated 5:13 p.m.*

Police have arrested a woman in connection with the green pain vandalism at the Washington National Cathedral Monday, the Washington Post reports. 

Police report that they arrested 58-year-old Jiamei Tian, of no fixed address, and charged her with defacing property.

DC Police are working with National Park Police to determine if the three recent incidents of vandalism involving green paint are related, according to a statement from police. 
*Police later corrected the spelling of the arrestee's name and Patch reflected that change above.

Original Post

The Washington National Cathedral confirmed Monday afternoon that its Bethlehem Chapel including one of its organs was vandalized with green paint, according to a statement from the cathedral. 

"The paint was strewn over the chapel’s organ console and casework and was discovered still wet, leaving officials to believe the vandalism had just recently occurred," according to the cathedral statement.

The DC Metropolitan Police Department is investigating that incident. Just the chapel was initially closed to the public Monday afternoon while a search was underway. But the entire cathedral was closed to the public when green paint was found in a second area, WTOP reports on Twitter. 

Meanwhile, the Smithsonian reported a similar incident of green paint splashed on the Joseph Henry Statue near the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall, according to WAMU. 

On Friday, the Lincoln Memorial was closed to the public for several hours as the National Park Service cleaned green paint that vandals has splashed there some time overnight Thursday into Friday. 

It is unclear whether the three instances are related.