Vehicles burned with Molotov cocktails, spray painted with ‘BLM’ outside Charlotte
Three vehicles were set ablaze with ‘Molotov cocktails’ and spray painted in black with the lettering “BLM” and “Black Lives Matter” near Monroe late Thursday, Union County sheriff’s investigators said Friday.
Officers found the lettering spray painted in black on the exterior of the vehicles as well as on the attached trailers, according to a Union County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post Friday. Investigators found similar spray paintings on the side of a former Food Lion building nearby.
Investigators won’t know a motive behind the vandalism until an arrest is made, sheriff’s spokesman Tony Underwood told The Charlotte Observer Friday. There are no suspects.
A Lexus sedan, a Ford F350 dual pickup truck hitched to a flatbed trailer and an 18 wheeler were burned and vandalized in the 300 block of Dale Street just before 11 p.m., according to the sheriff’s office.
The Union County fire marshal, a sheriff’s office crime scene investigator and an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives examined the vehicles and the surrounding area for evidence.
Investigators determined the vehicles “were intentionally burned using bottles filled with flammable liquids, commonly referred to as Molotov cocktails,” according to the sheriff’s office statement. The passenger areas of the Lexus and the Ford F350 “were completely destroyed.”
The registered owners of the vehicles often park along Dale Street because of residential codes or limited parking at their homes, sheriff’s officials said.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Union County Sheriff’s Office at 704-283-3789 or Union County Crimestoppers at 704-283-5600.