remain under investigation, Sgt. Lawrence Peele, a New Jersey State Police spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
At the hearing, Drelich said that he walked from his nearby
home to the sign on Halsey Road and used a can of spray-paint to spell out the acronym "BLM."
The sign is about 400 feet from Strada's house. It was unclear Tuesday whether that had anything to do with where Drelich chose to leave his graffiti. Neither prosecutors nor the defense cited the sheriff's home as a factor during the hearing.
He fled into a cow pasture across the road after he saw a state police trooper vehicle, he said. As he did so, he dropped his cell phone near the roadway.