Plano, Texas, investigators are trying to determine whether two back-to-back attacks on the home of a Muslim family were just a simple case of vandalism or a hate crime, CBS DFW reports.
According to the report, someone threw a rock through the house window twice over the past few days. Grainy security footage captured what appear to be three suspects running away from the scene after the rock was thrown.
As for the family, who didn’t want their name mentioned, they have lived in Plano for only six weeks. Now they are fearful of what will happen next and wonder whether the attacks will continue and if they are being targeted because of their religion.
“More than the damage—it’s not the window—it’s the terrifying factor of it,” the homeowner told the news station. “It is them trying to terrorize us or scare us. The kids are scared to go up or down alone.
“This is just unfortunate and scary," she added.
An Islamic group that is assisting the family believes that they have indeed been targeted.
“Some of the patterns we’re seeing—the fact that it happened multiple times in such a short period of time and because of the times that we’re in right now,” Alia Salem, executive director of the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told CBS DFW. “We’re getting multiple hate crime reports every single day.”
Read more at CBS DFW.