Racist graffiti at massive construction site sends 1,300 workers home, Utah cops say

A construction site shut down and more than 1,300 workers were sent home after racist graffiti was found in a portable bathroom, Utah police said.

The Utah County Sheriff’s Office said Monday, Nov. 8, that a racial threat and slur was found written inside the bathroom at a huge construction site for a Facebook data center in Eagle Mountain.

“The slur … identified a specific group, named a suggested action, and identified a date,” public information officer Spencer Cannon told McClatchy News in an email. “So that is at least part of why there is reason for greater concern.”

Police said the graffiti said “kill a ------ day” with an upcoming date.

Cannon said there have been other instances of alarming graffiti at the job site, including a swastika drawn on the ground.

“That kind of thing is cause for concern, of course, but it did not include information that was a direct threat such as the one yesterday,” he said.

Mortenson Construction, the company managing the project, discovered the slur and reported it to the sheriff’s office.

The company posted a $50,000 reward for information that would help them identify a suspect, according to the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office plans to continue investigating the incident, with special attention on the date referenced in the graffiti, according to Cannon.

Eagle Mountain is about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.

This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 12:15 PM with the headline "Racist graffiti at massive construction site sends 1,300 workers home, Utah cops say."