Letters KKK spray painted on several area properties

A Dayton woman says she felt threatened when she found the letters KKK spray painted on her garage door Monday morning.

Nikki Dunson, who lives in the 200 block of Lorenz Avenue, said she discovered her garage had been tagged by racist graffiti when a friend of hers called her while driving by her house.

“At first I was confused about why someone would single out my house,” said Dunson. “But I figured it might be someone messing around when I found out it happened to other houses, too.”

At least five houses in the same neighborhood were tagged with the racist graffiti over the weekend, according to police. The writing on some of the houses read, “I am KKK … .” Others read”I am KKK.com.” Police say every house that they found had a phone number and an address spray painted on them. Neighbors say they called the phone number, but they do not think the person who answered the phone is responsible for the taggings.

Lt. Matthew Dickey of the Dayton Police Department says they are searching for a black male suspect who may have tagged houses because he is having a dispute with his former landlord. Police say the suspect is trying to anger people who live in the community because he was recently evicted from his home.

“The suspect knows what he is doing,” said Dickey. “He is trying to be as provocative as he can about this.”

Police said that even though the graffiti can be frightening, they do not feel that the community is in any danger.

“We want people to understand that they are safe in their homes,” said Dickey. “There is not any targeted ethnic intimidation for the neighborhood.”

Residents said they have begun to paint over the graffiti on their homes, and are working together to prevent it from happening in the future.

“We can’t afford stuff like this,” said Janne Bush, who discovered her garaged had the letters KKK spray on the door Monday morning. “We don’t need this type of ugliness in our community.”

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