The Salt Lake City Police Department is asking for help identifying the person or people responsible for burning multiple Pride flags this holiday weekend.
Officers responded to a home near the city’s downtown area after the homeowner reported their Pride flag had been cut down and burned.
Police then learned that at least four other Pride flags in the area were vandalized in a spate of incidents likely to have occurred between 1am and 1.30am on Monday, police said.
Doorbell footage captured by one resident showed a man wearing a mask, hoodie and a stab or bulletproof vest approaching a house and cutting down a flag.
In a release on social media, police appealed to anyone living in the area to check their home surveillance or doorbell cameras to see if a culprit had been captured on video.
The Salt Lake City Police Department is asking for help identifying the person or people responsible for burning multiple Pride flags this holiday weekend. Pictured is a vandalized flag shared by the police department
Doorbell footage captured by residents showed a man wearing a mask, hoodie and a stab or bulletproof vest approaching a house and cutting down a flag
Another resident living on the 800 block of S Washington St., where the incidents happened told ABC4: ‘If it had just been somebody just passing by that would be less scary.’
‘It was somebody who dressed for any p outcome and that person with all that malintent was on my front porch,’ said Joseph Lebya.
‘They didn’t want to be shown, so I think it’s just a telling thing,’ another resident, Kellie Call, told the station in relation to the fact the suspect was in a mask.
‘My heart hurts because again this community has always felt very safe here for me, it didn’t feel safe this morning,’ said Call.
‘It doesn’t affect just the one person who has had this done to them, it affects the entire community,’ said Sgt. Mark Wian of the Salt Lake City Police Department.
Other residents of the neighborhood reported that people had visited in support during the day to supply them with replacement Pride flags.
Pictured is one of the damaged flags outside of a home near Salt Lake City’s downtown area
The remnants of a burned Pride flag are seen on the ground after they were vandalized in Salt Lake City in the early hours of Monday morning
The resident whose doorbell camera captured the vandal wrote on Facebook on Monday night that despite the hateful incident he had ended the day on a high.
‘Started today with a very heavy heart and tears in my eyes as I found out my neighborhood, and my home, were targeted in a hate attack early this morning,’ he wrote.
‘Whoever did this is a coward and I’m just sad for them. Within 12 hours of this incident some kind, anonymous person, left a new flag with a note of love! It’s been a hard day but I will sleep well tonight with my new Pride flag flying, in addition to keeping the remains of the damaged one,’ he added.
In a press release, police said they would investigate the incident as a possible hate crime.
‘The Salt Lake City Police Department recognizes our responsibility to investigate hate crimes thoroughly and impartially to hold offenders accountable and ensure justice for survivors,’ the statement read.
‘The Salt Lake City Police Department educates its officers and works with our community to recognize, and condemn, hate crimes and works to prevent them from occurring in the future.
Members of the community showed solidarity by visiting the neighborhood with replacement Pride flags
The resident whose doorbell camera captured the vandal wrote on Facebook on Monday night that despite the hateful incident he had ended the day on a high
‘The effects of a hate crime can be devastating and long-lasting for both the individual victim and the larger community.’
According to Utah law, an incident is a hate crime if a victim is targeted for being a member of a protected class due to either their ancestry, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, national origin, race, religion or sexual orientation.
This latest incident comes after last month pride flags were stolen throughout Salt Lake Valley, in Salt Lake City, South Jordan, Millcreek and Holladay, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
On June 8, police in South Jordan in Salt Lake County shared video of a man in a mask approaching a house equipped with a Ring doorbell and tearing down a Pride flag before running off with it.
