When Jayla Gipson and Charles Crawford awoke to one of their cars engulfed in flames outside their home in a Dallas suburb last week, the couple initially assumed it was an accident, they told WFAA.
But when the smoke cleared, they noticed the spray-painted message on their garage: “TRUMP 20.”
Now, the Little Elm Police Department and federal authorities are investigatingwhat the family says was a targeted “political” attack sparked by a Black Lives Matter yard sign that was also damaged that night. The Black couple says they found the words “Silence = Violence” on their sign crossed out with the same bright red paint used on their garage door.
“That sign was in my yard for less than two weeks and then all of a sudden we get a tragedy like this,” Gipson told WFAA. “I would have preferred they just take the sign. But to set the house on fire? That’s going way too far.”
Since nationwide protests over racial injustice and police brutality have coursed through the country this year, BLM signs have regularly been focal points for acts of vandalism. In July, a couple in Martinez, Calif., painted over a BLM street sign, calling claims of police brutality “a lie.” It happened again last weekend when pro-Trump supporters who took the streets of Washington to echo the president’s baseless election fraud claims destroyed aBlack Lives Matter banner and sign belonging to two historic Black churches.
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Gipson and Crawford, who moved to Little Elm, Tex., in 2017, said they’d never experienced any issues in the northern Dallas suburb, Gipson told the local station. The BLM sign the family had staked on their front yard around Thanksgiving had caused them no issues either, she added.
Until the early morning of Dec. 9, when around midnight, Gipson’s son, who had gotten up to use the bathroom, noticed one of the couple’s sedans had caught fire. Gipson’s son awoke the rest of the family, who all left the house unharmed, the Little Elm Journal reported.
“If he hadn’t done that, my house might be burned down,” Gipson told WFAA. “My daughter’s bedroom is towards the front of the house, so this could have been really bad.”
Later that morning, after the fire department put out the blaze — which ended up engulfing the family’s other car as well — they noticed the “Trump 20” message and vandalized BLM yard sign. The windshields of their two sedans were also partially shattered with bricks taken from their yard, Gipson told the Journal.
Neither Gipson, Crawford nor the Little Elm Police Department immediately responded to The Washington Post’s request for comment early Friday.
Little Elm Police Department Chief Rodney Harrison told the Journal that it’s too soon to catalogue the incident as a hate crime, noting that the FBI and police are “looking at all possible angles.”
“Investigators have extensively canvassed the scene, including interviewing neighbors and reviewing video footage from nearby cameras. The investigation is currently ongoing,” the police department said in a news release.
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Both the family’s cars were declared a total loss, Gipson told the local station, and the damage to the cars and her home totaled about $70,000.
Although the alleged attack has rattled Gipson’s neighborhood, the couple says the community has also rallied to their aid. One neighbor bought them a security camera system, and another one gifted them paint so they can cover the graffiti, Gipson told WFAA.
As Gipson awaits for the investigation to conclude, she said she hopes that whoever did this will face justice.
“We definitely feel targeted,” Gipson told the Journal. “It’s political, and it’s uncalled for. I don’t feel like we should have to go through that. This is because of how my family’s identity and that we shared a Black Lives Matter sign.”
