Race Incidents Reported At Gu Man Yells Racial Slurs; Black’s Car Vandalized

Two more racial incidents were reported at Gonzaga University over the weekend after three black law students were targeted by a racist letter last Friday.

On Sunday night, campus security and Spokane police escorted a man off campus and threatened to arrest him for trespassing after he yelled racial slurs outside the Foley Center library.

The man was in his mid-20s and was not a student, but was seen in the library previously looking at maps, said Dale Goodwin, a university spokesman.

In another incident, Paul Taulton, a black undergraduate student, reported his car was vandalized when someone scratched it while parked outside his dormitory Saturday night.

Taulton also reported getting a telephone message over the weekend from an unidentified person who called him “nigger” repeatedly, Goodwin said.

The vandalism and telephone call are being investigated by GU security and Spokane police.

Last Friday, copies of the same racist letters were left at the apartments of two black law students. They are among a group of four black law students who were targeted one year ago with similar racist letters.

The letters from last year and this year are under investigation by the FBI and city police, Goodwin said.

Authorities believe the letters are the work of one or more second-year law students, but no suspects have been identified.

Uri Clinton, a law student who received letters both years, asked the university on Monday to invite the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to hold a diversity workshop later this spring.

The university is willing to go along with the request, Goodwin said.

Goodwin said there is no evidence linking the weekend incidents with the racist letters. “It’s unfortunate,” he said.

, DataTimes