The investigation of racist graffiti in Lunenburg, Mass. — graffiti that prompted the cancelation of the town’s high school football season — has now turned to the mother of the victim.
The Boston Globe reported this week that Andrea Brazier, the mother of a former Lunenburg High School football player, was questioned by local police and an FBI agent on Nov. 25, and is now a “strong suspect” in the case.
Brazier first reported the graffiti on her house, which included a racist slur, on Nov. 15. Brazier is white. Her husband, Anthony Phillips, is black. And their son played on Lunenburg’s freshman and junior varsity football teams, according to the Globe. A few days after the graffiti was found, hundreds of Lunenburg residents held a candlelight vigil in the town center to show support for Brazier’s son. Phillips told reporters his son — who since the incident has transferred to a school in a neighboring town — had been harassed by teammates.
But according to a police affidavit obtained by the Globe, the FBI agent that questioned Brazier on Nov. 25 suggested that she wanted the investigation to end because she was the one who had sprayed the graffiti on her family’s home.
“Andrea stated ‘OK,’ ” according to the affidavit. “Andrea just kept answering ‘OK’ and that she wanted everything to end and that we did not understand.”
On Tuesday, investigators searched the family’s home. They found cans of spray paint.
Correction: This post originally stated incorrectly that Andrea Brazier was the mother of the suspect in the graffiti incident.