Racist Graffiti Near Kansas State University Turns Out to Be Hoax

A black Kansas man admitted he vandalized his own car with racist graffiti, according to a report from the Associated Press.

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A photo of the graffitied vehicle was posted on Twitter on November 1. The car was defaced with messages such as “Go home,” “date your own kind,” and “whites only.” The user who posted the photos wrote that incidents like this are “expected.”

An emergency meeting of the Kansas State Black Students Union was called the evening that the graffiti was found. Kansas State administrators held a Facebook Live session with worried parents. The university increased their police patrols and the FBI opened an investigation into a possible hate crime.

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— Andrew Hammond (@ahammsportsgeek) November 2, 2017

On Monday, local police announced that 21-year-old Dauntarius Williams had admitted that he was responsible for the graffiti and that he was the owner of the vehicle.

“The whole situation got out of hand when it shouldn’t have even started,” Williams said. “It was just a Halloween prank that got out of hand. I wish I could go back to that night but I can’t. I just want to apologize from the bottom of my heart for the pain and news I have brought you all.”

Despite the lengths to which the community and the FBI went to respond to the alleged crime, the Riley County Police Department defended Williams, arguing that he is just a young man who made a mistake.

“While William’s mistake had a decidedly negative impact on the community, please recognize that he, like many of us when we were young, is a young man who made a mistake and is now doing his best to own up to it,” said Brad Schoen, director of the Riley County Police Department.