Alleged Cabazon library vandal arrested

A man suspected of throwing rocks through windows of the Cabazon Public Library is expected to face felony vandalism charges, a sheriff’s deputy said today.

Deputies who responded to a burglar alarm at the library on July 21 found several smashed windows, according to sheriff’s Sgt. John Carlberg. Video surveillance footage showed a suspect throwing rocks through the building’s front windows, and deputies also found that two more windows on the south side of the Carmen Avenue building had been shattered with rocks, Carlberg said.

The damage was estimated at about $2,000.

On Sunday, exactly one week later, library staff called the sheriff’s department to report that someone matching the description of the vandalism suspect was back at the library. Deputies arrived and detained Louis Angel Mendoza, 20, of Cabazon, and determined that he was the suspect seen in the surveillance video, Carlberg said.

Mendoza was booked at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning on suspicion of felony vandalism.