Authorities say they have identified the two white people who visited a Black councilmember’s home in Michigan and pointed a photo of an ape at her doorbell camera.
According to Ann Arbor Police, two white males approached Councilwoman Cynthia Harrison’s home on July 16 at 8 p.m. and repeatedly knocked on the door and rang the doorbell.
The pair activated the Ring doorbell camera, and one of them displayed a picture of an ape on his phone. They also said one of the homeowners’ names as they stood by the front door.
The strangers waited at Harrison’s front door for around five minutes. When no one answered, they drove away in a gray minivan.
Harrison told CBS Detroit that she and her husband were sleeping when they heard the knocks and doorbell rings. They weren’t expecting any visitors, and when she checked her doorbell camera, she saw the photo of the ape.
“I’ve never really heard anyone knock at my door with such ferocity,” Harrison said. “My heart is beating literally out of my chest. I’m trying to process what had happened, and I see two individuals that I don’t recognize.”
She told police she didn’t know the individuals and had no idea why they would visit her home.
“You see that as something that shouldn’t happen in this day and age, and as the police chief, I found it as disturbing,” Ann Arbor Police Chief Andre Anderson said.
The incident happened just a day after Harrison and her fellow councilmembers approved a resolution to bolster hate crime training for local law enforcement and ensure police receive up-to-date guidance with a “focus on proactive measures to prevent and respond to hate crimes.
Anderson said there’s no proof at this point to determine whether these individuals’ actions are connected to the hate crime resolution. Harrison believes it was a racist attempt to intimidate her and her family.
“I need these individuals to understand that what they did is unacceptable. You are on my private property; this is my home; this is somewhere where I need to feel safe,” she said.
Police called the incident “alarming,” adding, “Hate has no place in the City of Ann Arbor.”
“These actions were deliberate, as one of the assailants could be explicitly heard mentioning an African American male homeowner’s name as he displayed the photo of the ape,” Anderson said.
Investigators have not released the identities of both individuals but said both don’t live in Harrison’s neighborhood, and one was an adult.
“At some point, we will get the information over to our prosecutors as well as those that will charge in this particular incident and allow them to make the decision,” Anderson said.
