NEW ORLEANS — A 20-year-old black woman said she was set on fire by three men who wrote the initials KKK and a racial slur on her car in northeastern Louisiana, police said Monday.
Officers found Sharmeka Moffitt with burns on more than half of her body when they responded to her emergency call Sunday night, said Louisiana State Police spokeswoman Lt. Julie Lewis.
The FBI is investigating the attack as a possible hate crime, but no arrests had been made as of late Monday, Lewis said. She said Moffitt was in critical condition at a hospital and that some of her injuries were third-degree burns.
Moffitt told police the men doused her in a flammable liquid and set her on fire at a park in Winnsboro, a town in Franklin Parish. Lewis said she extinguished the fire using water from a spigot before a police officer arrived.
Officers found the letters KKK — an apparent reference to the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan — and a racial slur smeared in a paste-like substance on the hood of her car, Lewis said.
On the emergency call, Moffitt described her attackers as three men wearing white hoods or hats, Lewis said. She later told a Winnsboro Police officer who responded to the call that the men were wearing white hoodies. She was unable to say what race her attackers were.
The officer found no suspects or vehicles at Civitan Park where the attack allegedly happened, and the park has no surveillance cameras, Lewis said. Franklin Sheriff Kevin Cobb called it “a horrific event” and said authorities would “follow the facts and seek justice.”
Otis Chisley, the president of the local branch of the NAACP, a civil rights group, said he had been in touch with Moffitt’s distraught family. He said he was waiting for more facts to come to light before drawing any conclusions about what happened and that “everyone wants to move with caution.”
Regardless of the investigation’s outcome, though, Chisley said, racism and KKK activity remain a fact of life in the state.
“It’s prevalent throughout Louisiana,” he said. “It’s hidden but it exists.”
Moffitt’s mother, Edna, said her daughter had been exercising at the park.
“To my knowledge, she has never been threatened,” Edna Moffitt said through tears during a Monday afternoon news conference at LSU Hospital, according to the Shreveport Times. “I have never known anything like this to happen in Winnsboro.”
An earlier report that Moffit had been wearing a T-shirt of President Obama wasn’t accurate, Edna Moffitt added.
I will not jump to conclusions until all the facts are out about this case, but things are not looking good in the “BIG EASY”. This is not a stabbing or shooting or even a fight where she was out numbered. This looks, smells and reminds me of a hate crime. Shootings happen all the time and by random people because it’s not that personal. When we see a stabbing it’s very personal, usually by people who know each other. To throw flammable liquid on somebody and then set them on fire, is usually signs of a hate crime and nothing else. I do not know about them being Ku Klux Klan Members, for all we know it’s someone who hates the KKK and are trying to plant this on them. BUT we can’t overlook that it MAY be the KKK. It is well known in New Orleans that they still exist in and around Louisiana. Today the Klan are promoting themselves in different ways. Using the Internet and social media to try to show a new Image of themselves.
“Our Purpose is to bring back the traditional beliefs of the original Klan establishment on Christmas Eve in 1865. Our beliefs should not be confused with other “Klan groups” which have inadvertently labeled every organization like ours with a tainted reputation. We are working diligently to change these wrongful stereotypes, and to make a positive impact on the south, and the organizations as a whole.We are a secret service, and fraternal organization established to promote Christianity, white heritage, and unity amongst ourselves”.
This is straight from their homepage at http://www.dixierangerskkk.com/.
The problem with their statement is, we live in a world with more than ONE race. If you’re trying to improve the south you have to include everyone in the SOUTH. Not just White Heritage groups, you have to work with every race and religion. By trying to not sound racist, it made them look like more racist. I’m not saying that the act above was done by KKK members but we can not act like they do not exist.
We will learn more in the weeks to come but it’s not looking good and this incident can divide a state especially one who has been through so much already like Louisiana.
“Like” us on Facebook——-> MindBender Entertainment
Follow us on Twitter——–> @MindBenderEnt