Man who defaced Pride mural in Florida ordered to write 25-page essay on Pulse shooting

Alexander Jerich, 20, pleaded guilty last month to criminal mischief and reckless driving in connection with a June 2021 incident in which he left 15-foot tire marks across a newly unveiled Pride flag intersection in Delray Beach, court documents show.

Jerich, with a Trump flag waving from the back of his white pickup, "stopped at the intersection and then intentionally accelerated the vehicle in an unreasonable unsafe manner in a short amount of time commonly referred to as 'burnout,'" said an arrest warrant.

The tires left a mark more than halfway across the nearly $17,000 mural, which had celebrated its ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 12, marking Pride month and the anniversary of the Pulse massacre.

Two days later, Jerich was attending a rally celebrating former President Donald Trump's birthday when he skidded dangerously across the intersection, the warrant said.

Another person who attended the rally, who identified himself as a gay man and spoke with police, said that before Jerich drove over the Pride flag colors, someone had shouted to him "tear up that gay intersection."