Santa Clarita man apparent target of hate crime

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (KABC) -- Authorities in Santa Clarita are investigating what appears to be a hate crime against a man who woke up to find racist slogans spray painted on his home and his car set on fire.

Anthony Bedgood's roommate, Jimmy Burke, was woken by a loud noise outside their home just before 1 a.m. Saturday.

Startled, Burke took a look outside.

"That's when I saw black smoke," Burke said. "I woke up my roommate."

"When we ran outside, we noticed the car engulfed and racial slurs painted on the garage," said Bedgood, who appears to be the target of the attack.

The red paint was still slightly visible on the garage Monday night and part of the driveway was charred.

Pentagrams were also painted on the garage and the hood of Burke's car, which also had its tires slashed.

Bedgood, whose father is African American and mother is Caucasian, says he's struggling to deal with such hatred.

He grew up in Santa Clarita and says he could not have imagined something like this happening in a quiet community with many multicultural families.

"You never think you're going to wake up to something like that," he said. "You don't know how to react to it. You get emotional, angry, upset. There aren't any words to say how I feel after this. It's shocking, appalling. It's disgusting."

Bedgood said there weren't words to describe how he felt, but he wasn't intimidated by the act.

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hate crime, vandalism, los angeles news, john hartung

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