Three Butler teenagers are accused of causing more than $1,000 in damage at Memorial Park by spraying paint with squirt guns, authorities said.

Police last week charged Shayla D. Livingston, 19, Alicia M. Velez, 19, and a 16-year-old boy with criminal mischief and conspiracy, both second-degree misdemeanors, in the incident May 18.

But Velez denied she and the others intentionally damaged the park. She said they were using the squirt guns to paint canvases they had taken there.

“We were not trying to be destructive at all,” she said Sunday.

A parks department official notified police May 19 after discovering the paint damage at the Rotary Shelter. The shelter was splattered in different colors of craft paint including to the concrete, pillars and grill, police said.

Bottles of paint and squirt guns reportedly were found in the trash can next to the shelter.

Police eventually identified the suspects. Both women admitted they had “placed paint in a squirt gun,” according to charging documents, and the “paint filled squirt guns were sprayed about the shelter.”

The parks department reported that the cost to repair the damage was $1,117.66.

Velez, however, said Sunday that the paint damage was unintentional, and that she and the others returned about 3 p.m. May 19 to remove the paint splatter from the shelter.

“We cleaned up as much as we could,” she said.

Livingston did not immediately return a telephone call Sunday.

Preliminary hearings for both women are set Aug. 10. Police did not release the name of the boy, who is charged in Butler County Juvenile Court.