FBI investigates connections after Junction City home is tagged with racist graffiti
JUNCTION CITY, Ore. -- Jocelyn Garcia has lived in Junction City for more than a decade. Her home was the second building to be vandalized with a swastika and a racial slur within the past month.
The Junction City Police and FBI are investigating the racist graffiti outside her apartment.
Garcia says this behavior is uncommon and now says she feels targeted as an African American woman living in Junction City.
“Junction City police had called me to let me know there was an incident," she explained, "somebody had spray-painted some derogatory symbols and derogatory words on my building.”
Shocked by this behavior, she says she now feels unsafe.
It's the second such incident to happen in the area over the past few weeks.
“That also involved potential arson that that we are investigating, so it’s a little different in the scenario that you have there, but it also had very similar spray painting that was left at the scene,” said Officer Tim Garrity with Junction City Police Department.
The incidents happened just a block away from each other, and now the FBI is looking to see if there could be a possible connection.
“Everything is being looked into. We are not going to rule that out but it’s still an active investigation,” says Garrity.
Garcia’s neighbor, Kevin Ferrel, lives right across the street. He reported the graffiti to police immediately after seeing it early Sunday morning.
“It makes me feel kind of uncomfortable about living here in this city, Ferrel said. "That is what I was moving away from. I figured I'd get out in the country where you weren't involved in that.”
Now it's under investigation by the FBI for a possible hate-bias crime.
“I’m a really quiet person, I don't bother anybody, I go to work and I come home, and this is what I get - for being black, living in Junction City,” said Garcia.
