*Chicago police have someone in custody in connection with a six-foot cross burning discovered June 9 at Grant Park.
Merlin Lu, 21, told WMAQ-TV he’s the man police were trying to identify when they released a photo of a shirtless suspect near the scene. According to The Independent, officers initially worried the act amounted to a hate crime. Lu said his target was President Trump, the “ruling class,” and Christian nationalists, not Black Americans. He topped the cross with a red MAGA hat.
“I did know about this historical relevance beforehand. But I didn’t know the severity, how racially motivated it may seem from what I did,” Lu said. “Cause my protest has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with gender.”
In the U.S., burning a cross, a practice linked to the Ku Klux Klan, has served as a tool of terror aimed at Black people. Lu disputed the hate crime designation. “I understand why it was interpreted that way, and I apologize for that, but no, the intent was not there,” he said.
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Mayor Brandon Johnson weighed in on the episode and Lu’s explanation. “I can’t speak to anyone’s motives. We can only speak to the impact. And the impact was devastating,” he said.
Although Lu told NBC 5 he was a senior at the University of Illinois Chicago, the school clarified that he has not been enrolled since fall 2025.
Per ABC 7, UIC released a statement saying, “UIC is aware of the cross-burning incident, the criminal investigation into that incident, and the comments Merlin Lu made to the media. An individual by that name was a student at UIC but has not been enrolled with the university since the fall of 2025. Due tofederal privacy lawsand the ongoing criminal investigation,the university is unable toprovide further details.”
Lu is facing charges, including arson and hate crime. He said his parents wanted him to hire an attorney, but he declined legal representation.
“They’re just worried about their kid. They’re just worry about my safety, worried about jail time. But like to me, as I said earlier, like those types of things are not really important,” Lu said.
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