UPDATE: Makeshift Republican office reopens after firebombing
NORTH CAROLINA, United States (AP) — Investigators combed through shards of glass, looked for residue of flammable accelerant and tried to narrow down the overnight hours when someone torched a local Republican Party office by throwing a device through the window.
The mayor said he wasn’t aware of any surveillance footage from the immediate vicinity, and the office sits where there wouldn’t normally be foot traffic at night — in a decades-old retail complex set back from a main road that backs up to a wooded area.
A bottle filled with flammable liquid was thrown through the window of the Orange County Republican Party headquarters sometime between 9:00 pm Saturday and Sunday morning, damaging the interior before burning out, according to authorities. Someone also spray-painted “Nazi Republicans leave town or else” on a nearby wall.
The office was empty and no one was injured in what the state GOP’s executive director called an act of “political terrorism.”
Local party officials reopened a makeshift operation on folding tables outside the office Monday while uniformed police looked on. Plainclothes investigators looked for evidence at the scene as state, local and federal investigators divided up leads.
The graffiti and remnants of the fire were discovered Sunday morning by 68-year-old Bobbie Sparrow, whose Balloons Above Orange shop is next to the GOP headquarters. She came to feed stray cats around 8:30 am Sunday when she noticed the graffiti.
“I saw the hate in it. And the only reason they used the side of my building, because it was a blank canvas for a message to the Republican Party people,” she said. “I said ‘this is a hate crime,’ and I picked up my cell phone and called 911 and told them someone needed to get here immediately.”
She said she isn’t aware of any surveillance cameras outside the buildings, and Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens said he wasn’t aware of any in the immediate vicinity, either.
County GOP chairman Daniel Ashley arrived Sunday morning to find the area roped off by yellow police tape. He said he believes whoever’s responsible intended to burn down the building.
