Noose found at Roseville playground but unclear if racially motivated threat, police say
A noose was found hanging from a playground structure last week at a Roseville park, but it’s unclear to police whether the incident was racially motivated.
About 7:45 a.m. on Aug. 31, a resident reported finding a noose hanging from the playground structure at a park in the 4000 block of Brick Mason Circle, the Roseville Police Department announced Tuesday in social media posts.
The resident had removed the noose from the playground structure and thrown it in a garbage can before calling police.
An officer arrived at the park, spoke to the resident and retrieved the noose from the garbage can to be collected as evidence. Police said the officer also walked through the park, looking for other clues or evidence of a crime but nothing else notable was found.
The Police Department conducted further investigation of the incident and coordinated with park maintenance staff to assess past vandalism there. Officials found no graffiti or vandalism that has been racially motivated.
Officers increased neighborhood patrols, especially overnight, looking for anyone suspicious in the park, and they canvassed the surrounding neighborhood to look for any home security camera or doorbell camera video that could provide further information. The department also conducted an internal incident review by its executive team.
Police said the incident does not meet all the requirements to be classified as a hate crime.
“It’s unknown at this time if the noose was put in the park as a prank, an indicator of suicide, or a racially motivated threat,” police officials said this week. “When incidents like this happen in our community, we want to send a clear message that racially motivated crimes will not be tolerated and will be investigated to the fullest extent possible.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2022 at 4:34 PM.
