Top New York Times editor’s apartment building vandalized with paint and graffiti

A view of red paint splattered across the front steps, walls, sidewalk and lamps outside the residence of New York Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn in Manhattan, New York, on Friday. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The Greenwich Village apartment building of New York Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn was defaced with red paint and graffiti in the early hours of Friday morning.

The paint covered the walls and front steps to the apartment building, and writing at the base of the steps read, “Joe Kahn lies Gaza dies.”

The paper has long faced sharp backlash for its coverage of the war in Gaza, and its headquarters in Times Square was vandalized just last month with red paint and a similar spray-painted sentiment, “NYT lies Gaza dies.”

No arrests have been made in the Friday incident, the New York Police Department told CNN, and the investigation remains ongoing.

The Times said it is working with police following the incident.

“People are free to disagree with The New York Times’s reporting but vandalism and targeting of individuals and their families crosses a line and we will work with authorities to address it,” New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said.

The display outside Kahn’s home follows a common theme of activists using red paint to protest the war by vandalizing buildings that host political figures, newspapers and other establishments.

In the month after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks and Israeli bombardment of Gaza began in 2023, several protestors were arrested after occupying the lobby of the New York Times building during a pro-Palestinian demonstration.

Protesters around the country have called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that began in 2023 after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that left 1,200 people dead and took 251 hostages — 48 of whom remain in Gaza today, and only 20 are believed to be alive, according to the Israeli government. The death toll in Gaza has reached 63,025 people, with a further 159,490 injured since the war began, according to the latest update from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

By Danya Gainor, CNN