‘Targeted’: Police Investigating After Black Family Wakes Up to Their Fence Set on Fire, Graffitied with N-Word

Police in Turlock, California, are investigating a possible hate crime after the fence of a Black family’s home was set on fire, and graffitied with a racial slur.

On Friday, Sept. 25, at 2:30 a.m., a Black Turlock family awoke to a loud banging on their front door. A neighbor told them that the fence behind the Kenwood Avenue apartment was on fire.

Terresa Rolland, mother to three boys, ages 11, 12, and, 14, went behind her home and found that the fence was destroyed. In addition, the N-word had been spray-painted on the fence across from it. The burned fence is located in the county, while the fence with the graffiti is located within the limits of the city.

Rolland has lived in the community for 20 years and said she had never experienced racism in the community.

Turlock Police Sgt. Mike Parmley said the graffiti appeared within a week of the fire, and the department is investigating whether the two are related. The slur is being investigated as a hate crime.

“I think that it is kind of ironic that that word was put on the fence and only our fence was burnt up,” Rolland said. “Is it a coincidence? I don’t know.”

Firefighters extinguished the blaze, which they said began as a debris fire in the alley and spread to the fence. No one was injured.

A second fire from that night in the same area is also under investigation and considered to be suspicious.

A neighbor named Katherine who notified the family about the flames, expressed her frustration about the incident. “Everyone loves them, they don’t have any problems with anyone. I don’t know why anyone would do this to their house, especially with children … there were three sad, confused, tired children walking out of that house wondering what the heck was going on,” she said.

Tamyra Clayton, a relative of Holland’s, expressed her concerns after the fire, saying, “Is it somebody that targeted them? Is it somebody that feels that way? Who’s to say that they won’t target somebody else?”

Holland posted about the incident on the Turlock Neighborhood Watch Facebook page, and many offered material and labor donations. By Friday morning, between six and eight community members had showed up to remove the damaged fence and make way for a new one.

With the fence gone, Holland was concerned that her family would now be exposed to anyone who might walk straight through the alley to Kenwood Avenue, where they reside.

On Saturday, volunteers put up a 30-foot-long, seven-foot-tall wood fence, and donations allowed Holland to have two camera/flood-light systems installed around the home.

“It’s amazing to know there are still good people in this world,” she said.

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