A white male in a Jeep allegedly screamed “fuck the niggers” before firing a shot through the window of a black candidate for sheriff’s campaign headquarters on Monday, local TV station KMBT reported.
No one was injured during the incident.
Zena Stephens, who is running as the Democratic candidate for Jefferson County Sheriff, told NBC that the shooting at her Beaumont, Texas office was an act of “ignorance.”
Beaumont police arrested a white male whose white Jeep had the same license plate as the shooter’s on an unrelated charge Monday night, according to KMBT. Police told the news station that they found two firearms inside the vehicle and planned to question the man about the shooting at Stephens’ office.
The suspect has not been identified by law enforcement yet, and the charge for his initial arrest wasn’t released.
This is the first time that Stephens, who currently works as the Chief of Police at Prairie View A&M University, is running for public office. Beaumont residents will head to the polls Tuesday to decide between Stephens and her Republican opponent, Ray Beck.
Beck called the incident a “travesty” in an interview with KMBT.
“This should not happen in modern times,” Beck said. “I am a personal friend of Zena’s and we are all glad that she and her friends and members of her campaign were not injured.”
