Toronto police charge woman who allegedly vandalized Forest Hill Starbucks with pro-Palestinian messages

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Toronto police have charged a 25-year-old woman who allegedly vandalized a Starbucks in Forest Hill with pro-Palestinian messages.

In a news release issued Saturday, police said officers were called to the coffee shop at Eglinton Avenue West and Bathurst Street in Forest Hill early Thursday morning to respond to a “mischief-related incident.”

Police said the suspect vandalized the storefront with multiple posters and writings which led the coffee shop to close for an investigation.

Images from the scene, as previously reported by CTV News Toronto, show the vandalism to the midtown coffee shop, with signs and graffiti which read “blood on your hands” and “free Palestine,” among others.

In a post to social media following the incident, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center CEO Michael Levitt thanked police for their “fast response” and “for all they’ve been doing to keep the Jewish community safe and protected in recent weeks.”

Although Toronto police said its hate crime unit has charged Skigh Johnson, 25, of Toronto with mischief interfere with the enjoyment of property, the incident is not being investigated as hate-motivated.

A woman posting on TikTok under an account with the same name as the accused confessed to placing posters on the store and writing on its windows.

“The investigation is ongoing, however at this time this incident has not been classified as a hate crime,” police told CTV News Toronto on Saturday.

While it’s unclear why exactly this Starbucks location was the target of the vandalism, last month, the Seattle-based coffee giant accused a 9,000-member union which expressed pro-Palestinian views in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel of damaging the brand.

The tweet by Starbucks Workers United, which read “Solidarity with Palestine," was taken down within 40 minutes, but the company said it led to more than 1,000 complaints, acts of vandalism and angry confrontations in its stores.

Since then, and amid duelling lawsuits between and against Starbucks and the union, the coffee chain issued a statement expressing its “deepest sympathy” amid the “escalating violence and hate against the innocent in Israel and Gaza.”

With files from The Associated Press