UPDATED: 5:50 p.m.
Someone noticed the rope around 3 p.m. Monday, deep in the park near Verree Road and Bloomfield Avenue. The passerby contacted Parks and Recreation officers, who then called police.
Staff Inspector Sekou Kinebrew said the rope does resemble a noose.
“(It) was hung over a tree branch. It was rather lengthy — at least 10 to 12 feet long, and I am only estimating — with a loop at the end,” he said, “very consistent with a noose.”
Police ask that anyone who was in the park within the last few days or the past week to call them, even anonymously, so they can narrow down a timeline of when it may have been placed there.
“Obviously it’s representative of hate anytime you see a noose,” said Kinebrew. “Don’t know what was in the mind of the person or people who put it there, but a noose on its face is certainly a symbol of historic hate and aggression, particularly African-American.”
Although detectives are handling this case, a hate crime tracking unit, which works with the police department’s Community Relations Division, will follow and assist with any investigation that could be considered a hate crime.
“If anyone was in that area a day or two days ago, a week ago, that could help us sure up the timeline as to when it wasn’t there,” Kinebrew added. “That would assist us in narrowing a timeline, and that would help us narrow in our scope of what we would need to search for in terms of video and things like that.”