FREETOWN

Vandals Deface Freetown Cemetery With Threatening Messages

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For a third time this year, vandals struck a cemetery in Freetown, Massachusetts. Headstones at White Cemetery were hit with graffiti twice earlier this year. This time the Assonet Burying Ground was targeted.

The vandals hit stones again with messages like "Try handwriting analysis" and more concerning ones, like "U stop me before I kill."

Rick Fetters lives in the area and said he’s baffled.

“I for the life of me can not figure out how people make decisions like, well, this will solve my problem by defacing a cemetery. I can threaten somebody because I have freedom of speech," Fetters said.

They also painted a message threatening the police chief and his daughters on the walls of a shed. It has since been painted over. 

"I don’t know why they would have a vendetta against the chief. It’s a quiet town. Usually no crime. I don’t know what it’s all about. Upsetting though. Yeah, if my dad was buried there I’d be a little bit upset," Rick Couture said, saying he found the incident disturbing.

The cemetery is an old one, with headstones dating back to the 1700s.

NBC10 Boston & NECN reached out to cemetery officials, but they did not want to go on camera. The police chief was unavailable for comment.

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