Black homeowners face suspicious fires and threat letters
A house from the Detroit suburb of Eastpointe has been the subject of suspicious fires and the Detroit police are trying to determine if the event has something to do with the threatening letters received this week by the black homeowners and which warned them to move back to the city or they will be killed one by one. The letters were received in the mailboxes from an area covering two blocks. The letters said that the black neighbors should move eight miles from that area in order to escape death and the name of the street that marks the suburban town from Detroit was mentioned. On Thursday evening, the fire that burst in one of the homes brought fear into the heart of the black community.
The firefighters were called on Sprenger Avenue and found two bedrooms with beds in flames. Investigators have already eliminated the possibility of mechanical and electrical problems causing the fire and are trying to find out if the fire was accidental or intentional.
The Eastpointe police, together with the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service, are also trying to find out who sent the letters, which were written by hand, photocopied, and then sent to seventeen different home addresses. The letters were not sent only to the African American homes, so the police are not sure whether the letters and the fire are actually connected. Together with evidence collected from the fire, they were sent to a crime lab for further analysis.
