Arlington police investigating vandalism to vehicles, including racist graffiti
ARLINGTON, Texas - Police are looking for those responsible for racist vandalism that happened in south Arlington.
A number of cars were spray-painted overnight Friday, with one car having the letters KKK and other racist words painted on it.
Those who woke up to the discovery said they consider it a hate crime.
Arlington police said their investigators have determined that these incidents are connected and were likely committed by the same suspects.
They added there is no evidence that any of the victims’ vehicles were targeted and there are multiple races, genders, and ages among the victims.
One victim said whoever is behind this should go to jail.
Featured
Racist graffiti sprayed painted at 2 North Texas schools
The graffiti had hateful and violent messages about Black people, Jews and Hispanic people. One of the messages contained a vague campus threat.
Saturday morning, several people woke up to find spray paint on their cars.
"I saw a big ol’ smiley face on the truck. And I’m like what is that?" Sedgwick Smith recalled.
Smith soon realized it wasn’t a smiley face.
"It was written on there, ‘KKK’ and a bunch more racist words at the tailgate of the truck," he said.
His brother’s Corvette was also vandalized.
"I couldn’t believe, we’ve lived here so long. We haven’t had nothing like that happen to us," Smith said.
Smith wasn’t the only one in south Arlington waking up to this discovery.
Arlington police said a total of 17 cars were tagged with "racist and vulgar graffiti" overnight Friday.
That included one on East Timberview Lane, two on Safari Trail, two on Moorhead Court, and one on Four Winds Drive.
Police believe the vandalism took place Friday night.
Jesse Rubio said his mom’s car was one of them.
"She was in disbelief," Rubio said.
Rubio caught the people in the act from his home security camera.
The video shows what appears to be a white car pull up and stop in front of a white truck.
A couple of people climbed out of the car, before it drove away.
"They tagged the truck and kept honking the horn, making a huge scene," Rubio said.
Smith said he considers this is a hate crime.
"We know all our neighbors. I don’t see a reason why someone would do us like that," he said. "They need to go to jail."