Police charged a 40-year-old man with cutting down a flagpole at a Sept. 11 memorial in upstate New York, an act of vandalism that prompted local and national outrage.

Andre Narbonne was arraigned Friday on charges related to a vandalized church sign and three severed flagpoles 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of New York City, including one at a memorial honoring five New York City firefighters from Washingtonville who died in the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, according to the Times Herald-Record.The memorial desecration on July 8 spurred a spate of media coverage, with some conservatives implying it was the work of radicals. Donald Trump Jr., the president�s son, warned on Twitter that it showed what will �come to your home town� if Democrats win in November.

But police on Friday did not offer a motive. A photo attached to a press release showed a message scrawled on the base of the severed pole in Washingtonville reading: �God does not want the U.S. bent on a virus! Don�t be idolatrous.� Officials did not indicate who wrote the message.

�It is sickening to me that someone could do something like this while not caring about the sacrifices that have been suffered by those who have defended our freedom,� New Windsor Police Chief Robert Doss said.

Narbonne also was was charged with cutting down flagpoles at a strip mall and a cemetery in early July in nearby New Windsor. He was arraigned on felony and misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief and released.

A phone number could not be found for the New Windsor resident and it was not clear if he had a lawyer.

Police said Narbonne traveled to Washington state after cutting the poles.

(AP)