BC Indian Family Overwhelmed With 'Sadness' After Family Home Defaced With Racist Graffiti

A British Columbia home was targetted by vandals. On Monday, July 13, a Summerland family discovered that someone had smashed the windows in their home. After calling local police, they also found Swastika symbols spray-painted on their walls near the broken windows. 

According to CBC News, a man named Ramesh Lekhi was at home when he heard the sound of smashing glass.

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He'd assumed it was a photo frame that had fallen but upon further investigation, realized that someone had shattered the windows of his home. 

Ramesh and his wife Kiran immediately called the local RCMP division, who came over to investigate the incident. 

RCMP officers told the couple that the shattered windows weren't the only damages done. Someone had also painted swastikas on their home. The symbols were accompanied by other obscene drawings. 

Narcity spoke to the Lekhis' son, who stated that a similar incident had happened to the family just two weeks prior to Monday's vandalism. 

"Someone had come to the back of our house and destroyed my mom's car," he shared. "So she's already startled about that." 

So when she heard the windows shattering on Monday night, she "starts freaking out," said the son. "She's like, 'they're coming for us!'" 

The past few days have been challenging for the Lekhi family. "It's been overwhelming with anger, hate, sadness, everything," the 30-year-old said. 

CBC News also revealed that a bandstand in a local park had also been marked with swastikas overnight. 

The Lekhis' son explained that the family has never faced such hateful vandalism on their home in all the years they've been in town. 

He does believe that they were targetted by the vandal. "Our driveway is long. It wasn't easy; he went out of his way." 

He said that his family members, who are of Indian descent, are the only minority family in the neighbourhood. 

The son mentioned that he and his siblings faced occasional racist remarks in high school. "But nothing to the extent where they targetted our parents. When they targetted our parents, we're like, that's a different level." 

As for the investigation being conducted by the RCMP, he believes it's not moving fast enough.

"We want the guy found. If he has that much hate, it can escalate to what has happened in the States." 

Narcity has reached out to Summerland RCMP for comment and will update this article after receiving a response. 

Although the last few days have been challenging for the Lekhi family, they've received tremendous support from the community. 

"We had everyone from the community coming in. Random people that we've never met, people saying, 'this isn't who we are,'" their son told Narcity.

"It's remarkable to see the community coming together."