Person arrested in vandalism at Asian-owned Kansas City coffee shop Café Cà Phê
Police have arrested a person suspected of vandalizing the Asian-owned coffee shop Café Cà Phê in Kansas City's Columbus Park neighborhood, Kansas City police announced on social media Friday.
"Overnight, our officers arrested a suspect responsible for vandalizing a Vietnamese business in the Columbus Park neighborhood this week," the Kansas City Police Department said on social media .
Charges were pending and investigators were looking whether the suspect might be connected to other crimes, police said in the post on Facebook.
"Detectives were able to work hand-in-hand with outside agencies to identify and arrest a person of interest that is believed to be responsible for multiple metro-wide burglaries, said Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a spokesperson with the Kansas City Police Department.
"While we cannot speak to the specifics of how he was located due to the investigation remaining active and ongoing, detectives did share that surveillance footage was extremely helpful during the course of this investigation," she said.
The vandalism is not believed to be a hate crime, Gonzalez said, adding: "We do not have anything to indicate as such at this point."
Café Cà Phê owner Jackie Nguyen, who spent the Election Day selling Vietnamese coffee to Kansas City Voters outside the World War I Museum and Memorial, told The Star on Wednesday she believed the attack was targeted, not a burglary because the person didn't attempt to go inside.
Video provided to The Star shows a masked person drove a Chevrolet SUV to the coffee shop at 916 East Fifth Street at 1:50 a.m. Wednesday. The person threw a rock at the glass door and window three times and then drove off.
Nguyen, who started her business in late 2020 to give Asian people in Kansas City a safe space, said this is the third time her business had been targeted by criminals. The first two were break-ins where burglars took money from the cash register.
Nguyen had sympathy for the suspects in those incidents, saying the alleged thieves were just people who were struggling.
The latest vandalism occured in the early morning hours post-election, just hours before the presidential race was called. The shop's Instagram account has been vocal about supporting Vice President Kamala Harris during her presidential campaign.
