Covington police officers and King County detectives appear to have cracked a graffiti vandalism case with the help of a witness and solid police work.

The suspect is a 20-year-old man who is alleged to have committed more than 55 acts of graffiti vandalism around the city.

The Covington prosecutor is currently assessing malicious mischief charges.

According to Sgt. John Urquhart, spokesman for the King County Sheriff’s Office, the break in the case came Jan. 3 when a man, who was walking his dog, saw the suspect spray painting a fence near Southeast 275th and Southeast Wax Road. The man yelled and the suspect ran off dropping the spray can.

A Covington police officer recovered the paint can. A latent print was identified by the King County Regional Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which was linked to the suspect.

Urquhart wrote in an e-mail the detectives noted a distinctive signature to the graffiti. Urquhart stated the graffiti had “gang overtones.”

Covington Police Chief Kevin Klason wrote in an e-mail, “Our officer worked very hard chasing down several leads before we received the print confirmation of the suspect we were looking at. Through this hard work and careful interviewing we have a good case we hope the prosecutor will be filing soon. The tagging has stopped since the suspect has been in custody on unrelated charges.”