Terry Williams and his parents are longtime residents of the Alamo Square neighborhood in San Francisco, dating back to the 1970s. But ever since the 49-year-old started his dog-walking business about 14 years ago, he has experienced racist attacks. It all culminated in a series of horrific events in April and May that now have left his family homeless.
On May 21, on the heels of receiving racist packages and death threats, his family home burned down. The entire community was stunned, and many are questioning why he didn’t have police protection around his home, given the disturbing nature and seriousness of the harassment leading up to the fire.
On the morning of April 26, Williams’ father found something on their doorstep that shook the family to their core. A clear plastic bag had been filled with notes spewing racist vitriol. There was a creepy doll with slurs scribbled all over it, and — perhaps most chilling of all — a photo of Williams with a noose around his neck.
The same day, San Francisco police opened a hate crime investigation and had a small lead in the case: they obtained surveillance video from a neighbor that showed a person approaching Williams’ home around 12:30 a.m.
On May 5, around 2 a.m., a second threatening package arrived at Williams’ home that escalated the vitriol. It contained a black face doll with a noose, and “Terry Williams” had been written across the top of the doll’s head.
The notes were worse this time, with horrific death threats directed at Williams, including “Get out of Alamo Square District”, “Pure race whites rule the globe”, “We will continue to exterminate you n***** slaves,” and images of the KKK.
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