REDMOND, Wash. — Redmond police are investigating a hate crime after a Black carpenter found a noose with his name on it at a construction site. The discovery was made several days prior to the report at the site of the future Meta Reality lab.
Here is a statement on the case by the Redmond Police Department:
On Saturday, June 25, a 33-year-old black male carpenter came to the Redmond Police Department and described an event at his job site that occurred several days prior. During this event, a rope was tied like a noose and hung in a shared trailer used for tool and equipment storage on a job site of Facebook’s parent company Meta in the 10200 block of Willows Road. A piece of carpentry equipment was attached to the noose by a piece of tape with the victim’s name written on it. The male victim provided a photo of these items to Redmond police.
A detective was assigned to the case and it is being investigated as Harassment and a Hate Crime.
Redmond detectives are continuing investigations of this case.
This is not the first incident like this to happen in recent years in the area. Sharon Lane says she found several nooses at a construction site at the Microsoft campus back in 20-21.
“It’s really sad that, you know, at this time and age that this is still happening,” Lane said.
She says that incident made her quit the industry after 14 years.
“And I text my supervisor and I said: hey, this is the reason why I won’t be coming back to this job. And I sent her those pictures,” Lane said.
The news of the incident in Redmond had members of the Seattle King County NAACP, Black Clergy and other activists meet on Wednesday to discuss the matter.
“It’s unfortunate this happened but it also shines a light on a kind of discrimination and outright racism that we still have to deal with,” Eddie Rye Jr. said.
The company behind the project, BNBuilders, told the Seattle Times 4 employees have been put on leave following its investigation. KIRO 7 asked the company to confirm the information. A spokesperson says they will send a statement in the morning and potentially provide an update on the matter.
“It’s up to the people that run those agencies to be responsible and responsive when they hire people,” Rye Jr. said.
“They really need to do something about this and something needs to come to pass to help this just go away, you know. Like there is no need for this kind of behavior,” Lane said.
KIRO 7 spoke with the man who filed the report to police. He says he doesn’t want his identity revealed at this time, but does plan to have a press conference on the situation soon.
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