A crew of upstate New Yorkers is getting praise after erasing racist graffiti discovered in the wake of a mass shooting at a Buffalo store.
A family in the Town of Niagara, roughly 30 minutes from the site of Saturday’s massacre, woke up Monday to a racist slur on their property.
“2022 racism remains said,” wrote Twitter user @I_AM_WF3 about the graffiti discovered by their parents. The user included a picture of a fence with the racist slur.
The tweet came less than two days after the shooting Saturday, which left 10 people dead in what police are calling a racially motivated attack targeting a predominantly Black neighborhood.
Officials are looking into the attack as a potential hate crime.
The gunman reportedly also had plans to continue his rampage after the supermarket shooting, the city’s police commissioner said Monday.
The home’s owner, Johnny Parks, a youth sports referee and youth football coach of 25 years, has been an “involved” citizen who has won the town’s Helping Hands award, Town of Niagara Supervisor Lee Wallace told Buffalo news station WIVB.
“Who would do something likes this?” Parks said in an interview with the Niagara Gazette. “I’ve never seen nothing like this, nothing like this at all.”
Parks’ son, Willie Fair III, told WIVB said “enough is enough,” and he encouraged people to “know their neighbors a little bit.”
As western New Yorkers deal with the pain of the attack, Twitter users were quick to offer their assistance to the Town of Niagara family who discovered the graffiti.
“I’d be more than happy to buy the supplies to paint over this. Please don’t hesitate to reach out,” said Twitter user @CLoSkills.
“I hope whoever did this is caught and the appropriate action is taken for this hate crime. This is unacceptable and I’m sorry that you have to go through this.”
“I’ll help clean or paint if they need it,” said Twitter user @Dawny716.
Less than three hours after their original tweet, @I_AM_WF3 tweeted a photo showing a crew of good Samaritans came to their family’s aid.
“Wow the @HomeDepot came and replaced my parents whole fence after what happened this morning. Not all hero’s wear capes ✊🏽💚,” the Twitter user wrote.
HuffPost reached out to the Twitter user for comment.
The New York State Police are investigating the graffiti in Niagara along with another “racist” incident in the Bronx, according to a tweet from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The state police are also working with the Town of Niagara and the FBI, the Niagara Gazette reported.
Parks told the area newspaper that the graffiti wants him to get even more involved in his town.
“One bad apple does not spoil the whole community,” he said.
