Black Kingwood family targeted with racist threats, slashed tires

A Black family received racist, threatening letters on their doorstep just days after moving into a Kingwood subdivision earlier this month, prompting a police investigation and disgust from community members. The woman, her daughter and a roommate moved into the Woodland Heights Village subdivision on July 2. By July 8, they had received two threatening handwritten letters telling them to leave, according to Houston Police Department spokesman Shay Awosiyan. That same day, the woman heard noise outside her home and saw four men running away from her SUV. Her two rear tires had been slashed, Awosiyan said. Awosiyan said HPD is currently investigating the incident as a terrorist threat or an act of criminal mischief. Neighbors on the woman’s block said they turned over their doorbell camera footage to the police, but no arrests had been made as of Tuesday.

No one was home Wednesday at the rental property in the 2000 block of Shadow Rock Drive where the woman, her daughter and their roommate were living. They could not be reached for comment. ABC13, which first reported the story, said the trio were “taking some time away from their new neighborhood.” Residents of the quiet, leafy subdivision described the incident as “horrible” and noted that other African American families had lived on the block for years without incident. They expressed disgust that their new neighbors, who they described as friendly people, were targeted for the color of their skin. “It’s horrible, it doesn’t matter what color you are. It’s so frustrating to hear that this is going on today still. Just leave people alone,” said India Brady, 61, who has lived on the block for 14 years. Kingwood, a mostly white, conservative neighborhood near Humble, was annexed by the city of Houston in 1996. Black people make up just about 5 percent of the census tract where Woodland Hills Village is situated. This month’s incident is not the first act of racism to befall the area in recent months. A series of racist acts against Black students at Creekwood Middle School in April prompted the principal to send a schoolwide email and bring in an educational speaker. In February, someone littered an Atascocita subdivision with antisemitic flyers. Black Lives Matter Houston founder Ashton Woods said the incident was “not surprising.”