Source: Portland Press Herald

BY DENNIS HOEY

STAFF WRITER

Several members of Westbrook’s Muslim community were so terrified by threatening notes left at an apartment complex Wednesday morning that they were unable to sleep that night.

Westbrook Police Chief Janine Roberts tried to calm those fears by hosting a community meeting at the police station Thursday evening. About 50 members of the refugee community, mostly Iraqis, spent nearly three hours talking in private – the media was excluded – with state and local officials about the anxiety the incident generated and what can be done to protect the immigrant community.

“I feel the community does feel threatened,” Roberts told reporters after the meeting. “Some members of our community have been truly traumatized by this experience.”

Roberts said Iraqi refugees told her that in their former country, the first step toward letting someone know that they were going to be attacked is posting a threatening note on their door or car.

Police said that a male resident of Westbrook Pointe found a typewritten message on Wednesday that said: “All Muslims are Terrorists should be Killed.” Roberts said the hand-cut strip of paper was stuck to the bumper of the man’s vehicle – the bumper was wet from rain.

Two other notes with threatening messages were found in the vicinity of the Iraqi man’s car, while a fourth note was found in a different area of the complex at 26 Prospect St. Detectives interviewed the man Thursday using an Arabic interpreter.

“These four notes, all with the same message, type font, and print, are the only notes confirmed by (Westbrook police) to be in existence,” Roberts wrote in a statement earlier in the day. The messages were on hand-cut strips of paper roughly 2 inches high and 8½ inches wide.

Westbrook police are analyzing the notes for fingerprint and DNA evidence. There were no results as of Thursday evening, Roberts said. The FBI has been made aware of the incident, but is not actively investigating.

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