Officials investigate cross burning at western Kentucky home
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Authorities are investigating after a woman said she found a cross burning in her front yard and a racial slur written on her mobile home in western Kentucky.
Tawaka Harris told the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer (http://bit.ly/2dS3KnX) that she and her husband, who are black, discovered the roughly 2-foot cross burning early Thursday after hearing their dog barking.
"He never barks," Harris said. "We came out, and a cross was burning in the front yard." She said she stomped out the fire and called police.
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The couple has been in an ongoing dispute with other Eastwood Mobile Home Park residents, Harris said. On Wednesday night, she said her husband chased and punched a man who kicked in their door. The suspect fled, and her husband saw the slur, with a threat, written on their home.
"They couldn't even spell it right," Harris said of the grammatically incorrect threat.
According to Sgt. Morgan Palmiter, a detective with the Daviess County Sheriff's Office, deputies canvassed the neighborhood Thursday.
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"We have made contact, trying to find potential witnesses, and we have done an interview with a potential suspect," Palmiter said.
Sheriff Keith Cain said authorities will call the FBI because it is a possible hate crime and increase patrols in the area.
"We don't have this here," Palmiter said. "This is not something we see here or tolerate here."
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Information from: Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, http://www.messenger-inquirer.com