Police release footage from school targeted in hate-filled graffiti incident
Posted Feb 26, 2016 3:59 pm.
Last Updated Feb 26, 2016 4:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Calgary police have released CCTV footage following an increase in graffiti and vandalism in the southeast community of Queensland.
Messages against Syrians and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are still being and sprayed and painted on schools and other buildings in the area.
There have been a number of cases in February, and police are now treating the graffiti and vandalism as hate crimes.
The anti-Syrian and anti-Trudeau graffiti has appeared on Wilma Hansen Junior High School, Haultain Memorial Elementary School and the Queensland Community Association and Rink.
District 6 Staff Sgt. Dave Sweeting said people in the area are on alert.
“Partners in corporate security that deal with the security of the schools are also aware of it, and they’re taking steps as well,” Sweeting said. “We ourselves have increased our patrols in the area, especially in the evenings on the weekends, in an attempt to try to curtail any more.”
He told 660 NEWS, these types of incidents are very concerning to police.
“Any time there’s a message of hatred towards any group or individual, it’s frustrating. It’s taken hard by the community that’s affected by it, it’s taken hard by the community that it’s directed towards, and it’s something that we take very serious within the service.”
CPS have released CCTV footage from the first incident at Wilma Hansen. It shows someone running away from a school carrying something.
Sweeting added, anyone could be behind the incidents, but they suspect it’s a young adult.
Police are asking anyone who may have information to contact them at 403-266-1234 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
