An expanding investigation into racist and vulgar graffiti on almost 20 cars in Arlington, all hit just a few hours apart on Saturday. Arlington detectives believe the incidents are connected.
APD held a press conference Monday afternoon about its investigation into the crime spree. They’ve dedicated additional resources to the cases, hoping to catch the people responsible for the obscene words and images impacting its south and east neighborhoods.
“This type of activity and the phrases spray painted on the vehicles have no place in our city,” said Arlington Police Sergeant Courtney White.
Dexter Smith started his Saturday just before 6 a.m. when he stepped out of his home on Safari Trail and walked to his car on his way to work.
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“Disbelief, I couldn’t believe it happened actually,” Smith said. “I’d seen but I really hadn’t paid attention to it until I got close and was like ‘what the heck’ and then it was all sprawled right over the back all over here and then it went down the side.”
His Corvette is cleaned now but the memories of the racist and vulgar graffiti that covered his car and his brother’s pickup truck will take more than oven cleaner to remove.
“Then it had KKK, then it had another foul word on the back,” Smith said pointing out the damage to his brother’s Ford F-150. “Then it had the N-word on the very back of the truck.”
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Turns out what happened to Smith’s two vehicles happened to as many as 15 other vehicles in the south and east part of Arlington early Saturday, according to Arlington Police.
Surveillance video outside another home captured a white minivan pull up alongside an SUV parked on Moorhead Court and at least one person exits out. The camera doesn’t capture the vandalism but the damage to the SUV was still clearly visible more than 24 hours later.
Travis Bland woke up Saturday morning to find his daughter’s car vandalized.
“The door was open which is what first caught my eye. Then I noticed there was some writing on the side,” Bland said.
The racist word was spray-painted in black letters. Bland said it wasn’t the first time they’d experienced vandalism at their home in east Arlington. This time, though, he had cameras that captured at least two people running away from his driveway and getting into a white minivan.
“Really kind of made me angry, then I got right out and started cleaning it,” he said.
He turned the video over to police and, feared his family had been targeted until he learned they weren’t the only ones.
Just yards away from Bland’s house, his neighbor discovered her SUV spray-painted in black as well. Like Bland, she shared surveillance footage of what appeared to be the same white van stopping in front her house. Her son’s got to work scrubbing the vehicle but was only able to remove a portion of the racist word.
Arlington PD on Sunday evening said the incidents are random, adding the victims are multiple races, genders and ages.
Smith said his family is the only Black family on his block and feels like whoever vandalized his vehicles knew he lived there.
“I feel we were targeted,” Smith said.
He added he hopes with cameras capturing the suspect vehicle, police will be able to make an arrest soon. “Somebody knows who they are,” Smith said.
NBC 5 is told detectives are currently investigating the cases as criminal mischief, but charges could be enhanced. Police have not labeled the cases as hate crimes.
