WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — A woman in West Valley City woke up Thursday morning to find a defaced poster containing a racial slur and swastika over a Martin Luther King Jr. quote.
The poster also contained the phrase "Vote Trevor Lee", a Utah house representative candidate who is nowhere near where she lives.
Deborah Gatrell is a teacher who went outside one morning to work out in her backyard when she discovered the poster.
"I actually only saw the backside at first," she said. "I saw the other side facing the elementary school where it had a stencil Nazi swastika. Then it had the stencil N-word on it and you know scrawled in black paint KKK and vote Trevor Lee."
"I was pretty mad. Like who would put that on my fence?” She said.
The sign was originally supposed to say “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, which is a Martin Luther King Jr. Quote.
It also has a background of names of African Americans that were killed by police.
She says the slur and images were put there with spray paint as well as painted on and had no clue as to who did it.
Gatrell took to Twitter to share her concerns, tagging the candidate Trevor Lee.
She has been vocal in her support of candidate Steve Handy who is running a write-in campaign against Lee.
“First of all, it's super offensive. It's incredibly racist," she said. "I don't even live in Trevor Lee's district."
When asked by FOX 13 News, the candidate Trevor Lee was confused why it even happened where it did.
“Well, first, I hope they get caught. I really hope everyone in this neighborhood has a camera or ring camera or something where they can go out and find who did this," he said. “I think, for the most part, a lot of my supporters if not all live here.”
While it's strange, the sign was disturbing to both people and the question of who and why remains.
West Valley City Police report they are investigating the incident.
