Winona home peppered with racist messages

Last update: June 8, 2006 - 3:57 PM

WINONA, Minn. Leaflets crammed with racist messages and threats were left at the residence of a white Winona woman and her two black children.

Christina Wevley's stomach turned Tuesday after finding about 20 computer-printed flyers on her porch and front yard. The flyers included a highly charged racial term followed by "get out."

The next morning after a night of little sleep she found 15 similar notes in back of her home. One was taped to her garage door.

"It took my breath away and it made my stomach so sick," she said. "And to find more this morning? I was just bawling."

The hateful notes also contained threats that the perpetrators would kill her and her children if they don't leave the neighborhood.

The 26-year-old single mother and her sons, aged 4 and 3, moved to the neighborhood a month ago from an apartment complex two miles south. Wevley has lived in Winona since 1999.

She's experienced racism in the town before, she said, but was stunned by the written threats.

Police Chief Frank Pomeroy said distribution of the leaflets qualifies as a hate crime. He sent three Winona police officers to the neighborhood on Wednesday to gather information and patrol the area.

"Obviously we're not going to put up with this kind of crap," Pomeroy said. "It appears that you've got somebody who is ignorant and prejudiced and needs to be stopped and we will do everything that we can do to stop them."

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