An African-American woman in Georgia has been charged with eight counts of making terroristic threats after she allegedly bombarded a black community with racially charged notes.
Over a period of several months, a 30-year-old woman named Terresha Lucas left intimidating notes in mailboxes on Manning Drive in Douglasville, according to that town’s police department.
The notes ranged from threatening to burn down homes if residents did not move out, to threatening to kill residents of the neighborhood, Detective Nathan Shumaker reportedly said. At least seven people received the notes, which also contained the N-word, discussed lynchings, and threatened children.
Lucas described herself as a tall white male with a red beard, and claimed to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan. She allegedly left the notes in Manning Drive mailboxes at night, beginning in December.
“Subsequent notes with similar verbiage were placed in residents’ mailboxes on Feb. 17, Feb. 22, March 1 and March 3. After a six-month absence, the final note was placed on Sept. 6. Shumaker said there were likely more notes written,” the Douglasville Police Department statement said.
After police determined that the notes had been written by the same person, the case stalled.
But they caught a break in August, when they were able to link the notes to Lucas, and obtained a search warrant for her home. Exactly how they linked Lucas to the notes remains unknown.
Police say she is expected to turn herself in this week.
Hate crime hoaxes continue to be a relatively frequent occurrence around the country.
In fact, another hate crime hoax was exposed in Georgia on Sept. 24.
The community at Emory University was up in arms when the N-word and swastikas were spray-painted on the Emory Autism Center.
That alleged hate crime was exposed as a hoax when a black man and former employee of the university, Roy Lee Gordon Jr., was arrested and charged with second-degree burglary.
Police said he was the same person who graffitied the building with the profanities.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Douglasville Municipal Building” by Douglasville Police.
