View Park community rallies around family after home spray painted with racist graffiti

A View Park family is searching for answers after their house was tagged with racist graffiti on Halloween, sparking concerns inside of their own home and throughout the community. 

"It may have happened to me, but it happened to this whole neighborhood," said Nelson Garbutt. "Because if they didn't stop it here, it can go on and on and on."

The Garbutts say that they have no known enemies and that they don't have any ongoing fights, so they're completely unknown why they were targeted, especially after making another jarring discovery on Saturday morning. 

"I noticed this bottle down here, and I saw a paper towel hanging out of it," said Nelson Garbutt. "The paper is burnt, like it's been set on fire."

The item, which he believes resembled a torch, was found on the street outside of his house just moments after he joined a number of community advocates at a press conference. 

"There are way too many acts of hate happening in our country," Robin Toma, with the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations during the conference. 

Garbutt says that the initial discovery, which happened back on Oct. 31, came when his daughter found that her car was spray painted. They then found more messages tagged on the sidewalk and their side gate, with obscene racist language. 

"We were just stunned. We were in shock, is this a joke?" Garbutt said. "Couldn't figure out who and why and what's the reason?"

They filed a police report at the time, but in the two weeks since, he says they've been unable to think of anyone who would want to threaten them, something that has never happened in the nearly 30 years they've lived in the area. 

The Garbutts have since cleaned up the vandalism, but the true damage remains to their sense of well-being. 

So far, they say that they've been unable to locate security cameras on homes or schools in the area but they told both police investigators and the NAACP about the discovery he made Saturday morning, hopeful it adds a new level to their investigation.