BLOOMINGTON — Indiana University Police and Bloomington Police are investigating at least two separate incidents of painted swastikas found over the weekend.
Indiana University Police responded to a railroad overpass on Saturday afternoon just east of Jefferson Avenue and found a swastika on one of the bridge pillars.
“It makes no sense to me whatsoever that somebody would take the time to draw something like that. It just doesn’t make any sense to me why they would try to promote hate,” IUPD’s Deputy Chief Shannon Bunger said in an interview with WRTV Tuesday.
Bunger said “immediately” the hateful image was painted over by school officials.
Police say there are no suspects at this time and there are no cameras in the area.
“What we’re asking the community to do is if somebody may have happened to be in that area and may have seen a vehicle parked there. However small it may lead to something big for us. If somebody saw something suspicious in the area, we want them to call our police department and we’re going to follow up on any type of lead. We’re all in this together. The more help we can get, the better off,” Bunger said.
Bunger said his department has gotten “about five” reports of swastikas found on campus this year.
"IUPD is aware of the swastika that was located off campus and at this time we don’t know if both crimes are connected by one person," police said in a news release.
The other swastika found off-campus, Bunger said, was not reported to police.
Bloomington Police also say that a woman reported seeing a swastika painted on a gutter downspout on a building in an alleyway in the 100 block of East 6th Street Saturday afternoon. According to police, someone had already painted over the swastika by the time officers arrived.
On Tuesday, a WRTV crew found two swastikas not painted over in that same alleyway. Bloomington Police said it is investigating all incidents.
Both IUPD and BPD are attempting to determine if any suspects can be seen on nearby cameras.
Anyone with information relating to on-campus crime is asked to call IUPD at 812-855-4111 and ask to speak to an officer. Off-campus, officers ask you to call Bloomington Police at 812-339-4477.
