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Lansing community center halts operations after weekend vandalism

Image of a cracked window of the Advancement Corporation Community Center.
Courtesy
/
D.J. Knox Jr.
After vandalism over the weekend, the Advancement Corporation Community Center in Lansing is closing its doors for cleanup.

Vandalism over the weekend has left a community center on Lansing’s north side in shambles. The Advancement Corporation Community Center or AC3, a one-stop shop for resources and support, is closing its door temporarily for cleanup. It’s housed on the site of the formerOtto Junior High School building.

On Sunday night, the Lansing Police Department was called after a staff member discovered three broken windows.

D.J. Knox Jr., one of the co-directors of AC3, believes most of the damage took place after the police left.

Broken white porcelain water fountains at the Advancement Corporation Community Center.
Courtesy
/
D.J. Knox Jr.

“Our porcelain drinking fountains, busted all of those up. They also ruined our gym that had just been fully renovated. They ransacked that. They also tore our auditorium curtains," he said. "And just a lot of the things that they painted on our antique floors, some pretty derogatory comments."

Knox says windows on all three floors were broken, and they also discovered signs for Emily Dievendorf's campaign for state House strewn across the floor.

"They painted some of our wood paneling and spray painted on lockers and walls and then found every fire extinguisher that they could find in the building and emptied it out all over the building," he added.

Dievendorf, who is running for Michigan's 77th State House District, had been using the space to organize for her campaign. She did not respond to a request for comment by the time this story was published.

Because of the damage, Knox says they've had to temporarily pause all services.

Broken wooden chairs at the site of the former Otto Middle School Building in north Lansing.
Courtesy
/
D.J Knox Jr.
Broken wooden chairs at the site of the former Otto Middle School Building in north Lansing.

"It's impacted us greatly because, for one, we were serving kids and families in there every day," he said. "So, a lot of those things that were happening and where we were serving the community has now had to halt because we we want to make sure we clean the dust from the fire extinguishers in a safe, environmental way."

The center had been helping community members with job placement services, housing access and educational support.

"It's built for one person that may need food assistance. They have to go to several different things to do that or have to do jump through several different hoops to get that food assistance," Knox said. "We wanted to make sure that we had enough services under one roof, so that people that are in need, but also people that just have a desire to help could go to one spot and be able to do that, get the help that they need."

He says they had also recently opened up a medical clinic that was serving infants and young children.

"We had just renovated it, new walls, new drywall and paint, the whole nine yards, but they had ransacked the clinic and had sprayed a dust material from the fire extinguishers."

Co-director of the organization, LaShawn Erby says they’ve incurred thousands of dollars in damage.

One of several broken windows at the Advancement Corporation Community Center
Courtesy
/
D.J Knox Jr.
One of several broken windows at the Advancement Corporation Community Center

"We put so much work into building a beautiful place for the community, but ... it has made me more determined to do what we intended which is make this turn out to be something good," she said.

Knox said he believes he knows who the suspect is but is waiting for the police to do their due diligence.

"From what we saw with the damage, we know like this was personal...this was a passion-filled like rage," he said. "So, unfortunately, that anger and that rage was severely misplaced and has now affected a whole community of folks and people that had nothing to do with it."

In an email, Lansing Police Department Public Information Officer Jordan Gulkis said officers were dispatched to the center Sunday night.

"The cameras at the building were not working. We were made aware of damage inside, and we got suspect information that was passed along to our detectives," Gulkis said.

While the organization does have insurance to fall back on, Knox Jr. says its not going to allow the center to open up immediately—which is why they are raising funds.

As WKAR's Bilingual Latinx Stories Reporter, Michelle reports in both English and Spanish on stories affecting Michigan's Latinx community.
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