GOP Keyed Cars Suspect In Concord Court Doc: ‘I Truly Despise Humanity, Filth’: Follow-Up

CONCORD, NH — A man accused of keying vehicles outside the New Hampshire GOP convention on April 13 was held on preventative detention after being arraigned in court on felony charges.

Lawrence Anthony Dunlap, 37, was arraigned by video from the Merrimack County Jail on 11 felony criminal mischief charges in Concord District Court on Monday. He was held without bail on an “adult order of commitment.” In an affidavit, police accused Dunlap of riding a longboard skateboard on Westbourne Road near Concord High School and keying at least 11 parked vehicles with political bumper stickers or state elected officials’ license plates on April 13, in targeted vandalism against Republicans.

Police began receiving criminal mischief complaints after the convention when members of the party and politicos exited the event. An officer arrived to investigate and found several damaged vehicles with long scratches. The damage was done sometime between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. between Warren and School streets.

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More reports were made to police on April 15 and April 17 after a story about the damaged vehicles was published on the NH Journal political news website. In all, 11 vehicles were keyed with damage estimated to be more than $1,000 per vehicle.

On April 15, police received a tip, and a second officer interviewed a West End resident about a man she encountered while walking her dog on Westbourne Road on the afternoon of April 13, who was driving a white van. The woman said the man exited from the rear passenger door of the van. When the woman looked at the man, she said he said, “Hi, ma’am,” and then he began taking pictures of the vehicles. Later, the woman saw the van parked on Liberty Street, but the man was not with the vehicle.

A detective began working the case and, on April 19, requested surveillance video from Concord High School during the five-hour timeframe of the convention.

In the footage, around 2:35 p.m., a man was observed riding a longboard down the hill of Westbourne Road toward Warren Street. The man rode the board “seemingly only a few inches away from the driver’s side doors of vehicles that are parked facing northbound on Westbourne Road,” the detective wrote.

“As the male suspect rides by the vehicles, his body shifts toward the left as he passes each vehicle, consistent with the motion that would be used to key the parked vehicles,” the report stated.

On Thursday, after a person of interest alert was sent out and posted by the Concord Regional Crimeline, the detective met with an administrator and information technology employee at the high school to grab additional security footage. That footage, from around 12:15 p.m., showed a white van slowly driving past vehicles on Centre, North Fruit, and Woodman streets as well as Westbourne Road. Footage was also taken from Liberty Street, where the school district central office is located, which included a registration on the van, an affidavit stated. The detective wrote a man, matching the description of the man keying vehicles on Westbourne Road, could be seen exiting the area of the van on Liberty Street on a longboard.

The man was also seen riding the longboard into the Concord High School parking lot off Warren Street, the report stated.

The detective ran a check on the van’s plate and found it belonged to Dunlap and he lived a few blocks away in an apartment on South Spring Street, a report stated. A check of Google Maps of the building yielded a photo of the van in the driveway, the detective wrote.

On Friday, police applied for and were granted a search warrant of Dunlap’s apartment and van. When detectives arrived, Dunlap was leaving the home, the affidavit said. His identity was confirmed — with the detective noting he matched the description of the man on the longboard. Dunlap then requested to see the search warrant, the detective said.

“After reading a copy of the search warrants,” the detective wrote, “Mr. Dunlap made a comment saying something to the effect of needing to talk to his lawyer about the incident and as a result, he was not further questioned about anything involving this incident.”

While other detectives searched the apartment, the reporting detective went back to police headquarters to submit an addendum to the search warrant to search a trailer in the driveway of the property, the report stated.

According to an affidavit, “a manifesto-style document” was found inside the home.

A portion of it stated:

“I can’t continue to exist for everyone else. I truly despise humanity and all the filth we have accepted as acceptable. This world and economy requires personalities more like Scott Herzog or Donald Trump. I’m sorry for the pain I know I will cause with this decision. Have me cremated and throw the ashes in the trash.”

Herzog, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Massachusetts, is a South Shore landscaper from Norwell, MA, who was sentenced to prison in October 2022 for underreporting $1.5 million in taxable income. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $100,000 fine. Herzog was also ordered to pay the IRS nearly $500,000 in back taxes.

The affidavit noted the full manifesto was in the case file. Detectives did not state what, exactly, Dunlap planned to do with the items in the tote bag.

Detectives found a hat consistent with the one the suspect in the video was wearing when the vehicles were keyed, and it was seized, the report said. The detectives also found a canvas tote bag filled with latex gloves, flex cuffs, a Billy club, dark clothes, facemasks, and a medieval mace — a club with a heavy head, sometimes with spikes, used to inflict injury.

During the search of the home, one of the detectives spoke to a family member by phone who said Dunlap suffered from depression, other information about his health, and also his employment status, the report stated. They said they had not known anything about Dunlap being involved in the keying incidents at Concord High School.

Detectives were also unable to find the longboard, the report stated.

According to an affidavit, the victims of the cases included one New Hampshire Republican Party employee, one party member, seven GOP state representatives, and two former state representative or state representative candidates.

A probable cause hearing will be held in Concord District Court on May 9.

A free, 24/7, confidential service can provide people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress or those around them with support, information, and local resources. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

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