BLM signs vandalized on windows of Shorewood restaurant

SHOREWOOD, Wis. (CBS 58) – A Shorewood restaurant, still recovering from losses due to COVID-19, was the scene of a possible hate crime this week, and it was caught on camera.

Tips are trickling in after police got their hands on surveillance video with a clear image of a man walking up and splattering paint over Black Lives Matter posters on windows of an area restaurant Sunday night, March 28.

A Shorewood police Facebook post has been shared several hundred times in the last day. Those who live there say Shorewood is not the place they'd expect something like this.

"Super peaceful, super quiet," said resident Wil Sessoms. "People know about the peace, there's always gonna be an opposer."

Trashing Cloud Red's storefront windows was a quickly executed attack. Red paint covered victims' names and other Black Lives Matter signs.

"I had to watch the video like maybe 10 times," said Thu.

Thu says she was the victim of racism in Shorewood last summer as she walked with her daughter by a man she didn't know.

"He saw us and he looked at us and he made sure he said loud enough that, 'Oh, it's those Chinese people again.' I knew he was referring to me and he was talking and I felt like, I didn't feel comfortable. And he looked at me and started screaming in anger because I actually said something to him."

Nine months later, Thu carries a sense of fear and a wooden stick for self defense. 

The vandalism at Cloud Red is bringing it all back.

"I felt like is that the same guy? And I felt horrible for what happened to them," Thu said.

A co-owner of Cloud Red told us, "It's an attack against the BLM movement, a sad reminder that hate continues and there is still work to be done."

Workers have since cleaned up the windows and opened their doors, it's business as usual inside. 

They even added a few more signs.

Just last week, Shorewood police were called to investigate after what appeared to be a racial attack at a sushi restaurant half a block down the road. 

Police determined that was not a hate crime.

Anyone with information is asking to contact police at 414-847-2610.