Police say they arrested a Hyde Park woman before she could deface grave markers with red glop

UPDATE: Now charged with vandalizing eight memorials at the cemetery; ordered held for a mental-health evaluation.

Boston Police report arresting a Hyde Park woman after, they say, officers watched her getting ready to spray a red substance on tombstones at Mount Hope Cemetery Thursday afternoon.

Police may have already had their eye on Deborah Gideon, 53: Officers were on Millstone Road, one of those Readville streets were almost nothing ever happens, around 4:45 p.m. yesterday, when they watched Gideon "toss what appeared to be red powder in the air and into the street."

Police have been on alert because of a series of vandalism attacks against three churches in Hyde Park and Dorchester involving a red substance poured on statues.

Police say that officers followed Gideon to Mount Hope Cemetery, off Walk Hill Road on the Mattapan/Roslindale line:

Where they observed her exit her motor vehicle, approach some headstones and make a tossing motion with her hand. Gideon got back into her motor vehicle and drove further into the cemetery where officers initiated a traffic stop. As officers approached the motor vehicle, they observed a spray bottle in the front passenger side, a gallon of a reddish liquid, containers of various colored salt, powered juice mixes, and olive oil.

She was then arrested on a charge of attempted vandalism of a gravestone and attempted malicious destruction of property over $1,200.

Last month, somebody poured an oily substance on several memorials at the cemetery; however, that substance wasn't red.

Gideon is scheduled for arraignment in West Roxbury Municipal Court today.

Innocent, etc.