Police in Chicago arrested a 21-year-old student from the University of Illinois Chicago on hate crime charges following a cross burning at Grant Park, reports Fox 32.

Grant Lu admits he set the fire but says he had no idea of the connection with White supremacy or the Ku Klux Klan. Instead he said he placed a red hat atop the cross to represent the President in protest pf the administration.

The hat was not visible in a video shot of the blaze.

“In no way possible was that a hate crime. I understand why it was interpreted that way, and I apologize for that, but no, the intent was not there,” he said to NBC News.

“I did know about this historical relevance beforehand, but I didn’t know the severity, how racially motivated it may seem from what I did,” Lu told the station. “Because my protest has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with gender.”

Lu was set to appear for a detention hearing today in court, according to police.

The incident occurred on June 9 and the arrest took place on the 15th. Police released a surveillance photo of the suspect and later named Lu as the suspect.

“This was so premeditated. You made this cross somewhere. You carried it, you got it downtown. You put it in one of the most visible spots in Chicago and then you set it afire,” Michael L. Pfleger of the Faith Community of Saint Sabina said. “This is a decades-old symbol of hate and supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan. This is their symbol.”