American University is determined to capture the person who was involved in leaving bananas hanging from nooses on its Washington, D.C., campus. The school has released two surveillance videos in an effort to track down the suspect in what campus police are calling a “racially motivated hate crime.”
According to ABC News, both videos were taken around 4 a.m. Monday and show an individual moving through the school property. However, the person’s face is not clear in the footage.
Campus police are offering $1,000 for information leading to the suspect.
The bananas hanging from nooses were found on the D.C. campus the same day that Taylor Dumpson, a black woman, started her tenure as the first black female president of the university’s student government body. The acronym for Dumpson’s Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority chapter was written on some of the bananas, according to reports.
Other bananas were marked with the word “Harambe Bait.”
Dumpson has addressed the hateful incident, noting that “being first isn’t easy.”
“This is not what I imagined my first letter to you all would be,” Dumpson wrote. “In my first message to the student body, I would have wanted to talk about accountability, transparency, accessibility and inclusivity. Now more than ever, we need to make sure that members of our community feel welcomed and, above all, safe on this campus.”
AU President Neil Kerwin noted Tuesday night that the incident was under investigation by campus police, “with assistance from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and other AU offices and senior officials.”
Read more at ABC News.