Vandals paint ‘sorry’ after 17 cases of racist and swastika graffiti, Wash. cops say
Officers patrolling Sammamish, Washington, on Saturday night were on the lookout for vandals who had painted hate graffiti earlier in the month — and then the officers’ noses perked up.
“They smelled fresh paint,” Sgt. Ryan Abbott of the King County Sheriff’s Office said in a phone interview with McClatchy, adding that “police just happened to be out and about” in the area.
The smell led to a newly-painted apology, which officers discovered around 11 p.m. in Klahanie Park, Abbott said. “Sorry!” one tag read, photos from the scene show. Another piece of graffiti said “not hate, just bait” next to a second “sorry” and some frowny faces.
“It’s most likely we just missed the person responsible,” Abbott said.
Those red graffiti apologies matched the paint and handwriting from tags found in February on 17 different pieces of property in the same area, according to the sheriff’s office. The graffiti ranges from swastikas to the n-word, and has popped up on garages, cars, fence posts and more, according to the sheriff’s office.
Police didn’t accept the apology: After finding the tags, officers searched the neighborhood for hours, Abbott said. No suspects were found, and the investigation is ongoing.
“We’ve been doing a lot of extra emphasis patrol looking for the suspect responsible for this,” Abbott said.
Although Saturday’s graffiti appears to be the same paint and writing as the earlier cases, Abbott said “it’s still under investigation and we haven’t concluded 100 percent it’s the same person.”
The first rash of hate graffiti perplexed locals in the town east of Seattle, KOMO reports.
“This is very unusual for this neighborhood,” said Joji Montenegro, according to the TV station.
Local authorities said the vandalism seemed almost random.
“None of the graffiti has exactly matched up to that person’s ethnicity or their culture,” said Sammamish Police Chief Michelle Bennett, KOMO reports. “We have many things that have been tagged — box trucks, mailboxes, fences, garage doors, cars — all with the same red spray paint.”
Police said profane language in Spanish has also appeared, the Issaquah Reporter reports.
“Some were words, some weren’t. Some were racial, some weren’t,” Abbott said. “It’s a wide variety of things.”
The town’s city council issued a statement condemning the initial tagging on Feb. 20, writing that “a vile and cowardly criminal prowled the Klahanie neighborhood and spray-painted hateful, racist graffiti on several homes.”
The council wrote that the city has a “diversity of races, religions, cultures,” and that according to the American Community Survey in 2015, about 25 percent of those who live in Sammamish are “foreign born.”
“While the Sammamish Police are investigating this hate crime, we are sharing this information in a public forum because we want it to be perfectly clear that Sammamish, this community, our community, will not stand for this kind of behavior,” the council said.
Residents of the neighborhood came together to rally against the graffiti on Sunday night, KING reports. Participants held signs that said “hate has no place here” and and “love not hate.” Dozens attended the rally, video of the event shows.
“I hope it’s just a bunch of kids,” said Dex Montenegro, a victim of the tagging, according to Q13 FOX. “They’re probably trying to take advantage of all the stuff going on in the media.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2019 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Vandals paint ‘sorry’ after 17 cases of racist and swastika graffiti, Wash. cops say."
