Police investigating hate crime after Enumclaw school meeting disrupted by racist slur

Two virtual attendees of last week’s Enumclaw school board meeting interrupted with a racist slur and image. Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

“This is a deeply disturbing, disruptive, and intolerable act the Enumclaw Police Department is taking extremely seriously and will work hard to identify the people responsible,” the department said in a Monday news release.

The disruption occurred Nov. 22 during an Enumclaw School District board meeting that included both virtual and in-person attendance. According to the release, it happened at the beginning of the meeting and the racial slur was repeated.

Police said the investigation might require search warrants to capture data that could identify the unique addresses of the devices used to disturb the meeting.

Additional violations pertaining to disorderly conduct and disturbing a school meeting are being considered.

This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 2:28 PM.

Peter Talbot

The News Tribune

Peter Talbot is a criminal justice reporter for The News Tribune. He started with the newspaper in 2021. Before that, he earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism at Indiana University. In college, he worked as an intern at NPR in Washington, D.C. He also interned for the Oregonian and the Tampa Bay Times. Support my work with a digital subscription