Fifteen headstones have been vandalised at an Austin cemetery historically associated with the area’s Black community, local media reported.
Vandals were said to have targeted the Evergreen Cemetery in Austin, Texas, at the weekend.
Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) said the damage was found on Monday morning, in what was believed to have been a random act, John Nixon, PARD’s communications spokesperson, was reported to have said.
Blue spray paint was used to deface the headstones, with derogatory phrases such as “AIDS”, reported CBS Austin.
Another headstone was scrawled with the word “Kirk”, and another had a sideways 8 on its headstone, according to reports.
"This is not just a random act of vandalism, there is a purpose, there is a purpose behind this," said Natalie Marshall, whose family members have been buried there, to CBS.
"My mother is here, I have uncles here," said another Austin resident, Roy Jones, who was among those who checked over family headstones on Monday.
"You wouldn't want nobody to do that to your family," he added.
Austin’s police department was said to have launched an investigation into the incident, after city authorities reported the incident on Monday.
Austin’s Evergreen Cemetery was established in 1926 for Austin’s black community, where prominent local figures are buried.
The vandalism comes after months of unrest across the United States following the police killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis in May.
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