The Clayton Police Department is investigating an early morning fire as a hate crime.
Police responded to the 7500 block of Westmoreland Avenue shortly after 3 a.m. Tuesday to find three vehicles with damage from a fire that appeared to be deliberately set. Officers also found antisemitic graffiti in the roadway.
No one was injured, and police believe the victim was specifically targeted.
“There are no indications of any further threat to the community,” the department said in a press release.
The FBI and St. Louis Regional Bomb and Arson Squad are helping with the investigation.
A half-dozen Jewish groups in the region, including the Anti-Defamation League - Heartland and the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, said in a statement that they condemn “in the strongest terms the attack on members of our community [Monday] night.”
“This is more than vandalism; it is a hateful act of intimidation and only the latest example of what happens when antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric are normalized,” the statement continued. “Antisemitism is a social ill that must be rejected by all of society.”
This story has been updated with a statement from local Jewish organizations.
