Racial slur, swastika found after mixed-race family’s home explodes in Ohio, cops say

A home explosion Wednesday morning in Ohio is being investigated as a possible hate crime after investigators found a swastika and racial slurs painted at the property, media outlets report.

The house in Wayne County, Ohio, was leveled to a pile of rubble after it exploded about 1 a.m. Wednesday, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. Police said the couple living there wasn’t home during blast because it was under repairs from a previous electrical fire, and the gas and power were shut off, according to the newspaper.

Police said the garage and two cars that belong to neighbors were spray painted with racial slurs and a Swastika, WKYC reported. The homeowners are an African-American and white couple, WJW reported.

Angela Frase said she and her husband have lived in the home for more than 20 years and “never had a problem,” according to the Cleveland TV station. She told WJW that the suspects spray painted the “n” word on their property.

“I don’t know where this is coming from,” Angela Frase told WJW. “Why. Why someone would target us.”

The sheriff’s office was searching the rubble to determine whether anyone was buried, according to WEWS.

Wayne County Sheriff Travis Hutchinson said law enforcement won’t tolerate this type of crime, according to WKYC.

“We’re going to make sure that we use all the resources available to us, including the FBI, state fire marshal and our office, and any other agency we need to bring in to fully investigate this,” Hutchinson told the Cleveland TV station.

Frase called the explosion “sickening,” WOIO reported.

“They will figure it out — you will pay for it,” she told WOIO. “It is sickening to do this to someone’s home and not even know if they are in there.”

This story was originally published August 7, 2019 at 11:42 AM with the headline "Racial slur, swastika found after mixed-race family’s home explodes in Ohio, cops say."