A man who found a hateful message scribbled across the front of the Southwestern College Sun newspaper Wednesday decided to confront the man he believed to be responsible.
William Bird, a Southwestern College student and journalist for the Sun newspaper says he first saw the man holding the latest edition of their paper in his hand as he walked into a 7-Eleven store directly across from the Chula Vista campus.
When he walked out he saw the words “[Expletive] Blacks” written across the front page, which had a picture of protesters from the Alfred Olango shooting in El Cajon.
“I turned around and the guy still had the marker in his hand,” said William Bird.
Bird approached the man and asked if he wrote it.
He didn’t expect the man to fess up and he certainly didn’t expect him to willingly agree to hold the newspaper for a picture, but that’s exactly what happened.
The man, surrounded by several of his construction co-workers, said “yes”, and that's when Bird asked him if he could take his picture with it.
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To his surprise once again, the man agreed.
Bird says the conversation soon turned towards politics.
“There's so much hate being spread in today's society with the elections, you have a very divided platform that everybody is jumping on either side and it's concerning there's some people think like this,” said Bird.
Southwestern College is now investigating whether the man seen in the picture works anywhere on campus, according to spokeswoman Lillian Leopold.
Leopold says campus police are involved and will brief Chula Vista Police.
Chula Vista Police say although the incident is disturbing, it wouldn’t likely carry any criminal charges.
