Dallas police say they caught a graffiti tagger in the act early Sunday in Deep Ellum.
The suspect was a former Dallas ISD teacher, and he's been arrested on graffiti charges a few times before.
Surveillance video shows the suspect — identified in court documents as Douglas Edward Chriss — parking his car next to Deep Ellum Self Storage and painting a wall for about a minute, leaving the SUV running.
He goes back and forth between his car and the wall he's painting, before three squad cars roll up and he's taken into custody.
Police didn't know when they made the arrest that the incident was captured on the business owner's surveillance cameras, footage that's likely to help them build their case against Chriss.
Deep Ellum Self Storage stands near Interstate 30, next to a white building that graffiti artists can paint on legally.
Owner Edward Holman likes the graffiti that adorns Deep Ellum, the legal kind, anyway. Years ago, he asked an artist to paint one of the walls of his 14-year-old business.
But in recent weeks, he said, taggers have turned one of his exterior walls into their easel. He's had to paint it four times in the past month to cover up illegal tags.
One tag resembled an animal. Another was illegible bubble letters.
Holman was tired of buying $110 in paint every time to cover up the drawings, so he decided to redeploy a few of his surveillance cameras to keep an eye on the wall that taggers targeted. Motion sensors on the cameras would alert him of movements near the wall.
Early Sunday, Holman was sleeping in his office when the sensors alerted him to an unwanted visitor.
On his big-screen TV, he watched a man drive to a spot on the wall and relieve himself on it. Shortly afterward, another man parked at the same spot and started spray-painting.
"I look up and I'm like, 'Aw, man, there's a guy out there tagging my wall,'" Holman recalled. "It was like fishing."
The artist was only able to outline what resembled the number 7 before cops patrolling in the area rolled up and arrested him on a misdemeanor graffiti charge.
"By the time I got up, put on my boots and pants and hit the door, the cops had already got him," Holman said. "I went out there to congratulate them and said, 'All right!'"
Police found multiple cans of spray paint in Chriss' Toyota 4-Runner. It's unclear what the drawing was intended to be.
Chriss, 26, started working at Dallas ISD in 2014 but was put on leave in December, Dallas ISD spokeswoman Robyn Harris said.
He taught social studies at J.L. Long Middle School during the 2017-18 school year, but Harris said he was placed on administrative leave in December. She didn't say why he was placed on leave.
Records show Chriss was arrested on graffiti charges twice in March and once in May. Those charges are still pending.
Chriss "separated" from the school district in May, Harris said.
On Sunday, he was booked at the Dallas County Jail and released after posting $500 bond.
He also has a pending charge of marijuana possession, records show.
Holman said he shared his video of the arrest with police. He also posted video on YouTube and on Facebook groups for Deep Ellum business owners and residents.
He hopes the arrest video and his surveillance cameras will keep taggers away from his property, but he said his recent experiences suggest they'll strike again.
"It's war — and I can guarantee you I will be tagged again," he said.
