Police are investigating a vandalism case at a downtown parking garage as a hate crime, after an unknown suspect wrote comments that were directed against people from India.
On Thursday, April 6, 2023, at about 8:54 a.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call of a vandalism that had just been discovered in City Lot “S,” the parking garage at 445 Bryant Street. The reporting party, a City of Palo Alto Public Works employee, told police that they had observed offensive writings inside the public bathroom on the ground floor.
An officer responded and observed the writings, which had been written in black marker. They were all comments that were directed against people from India. A Public Works crew removed the writings. Police believe the crime occurred since noon on April 5, as the bathroom had last been checked by staff then. There is no suspect information.
Officers will thoroughly investigate any reported hate crimes in Palo Alto. You are welcome to read a blog post from the City entitled “Steps the Community Can Take to Help Stop Hate Crimes.” The City of Palo Alto strongly denounces hate crimes of all kinds and encourages members of our community to promptly report these incidents by calling our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413, or 9-1-1 if it is an emergency. To view details on other hate crimes reported in Palo Alto, visit www.cityofpaloalto.org/PAPDnews and search by keyword “hate.”
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to [email protected] or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.
