Residents concerned after racial slur written in front of Posey Co. church

MT. VERNON, Ind. (WFIE) - The Mount Vernon Police Department is investigating after a racial slur was written on the street in front of a church.

On Sunday, the church’s pastor and a nearby neighbor discovered the racial slur had been written on the street just in front of where they worship.

Timothy Dunston is the pastor at New Life Temple Church of God and Christ, and he saw the writing first.

“Got here about 10 o’clock. I rode through here, and I noticed that orange writing there,” explains Dunston, “but then I also noticed blue flags down here, so that tells me they’re getting ready to build something.”

The orange writing scrawled on the road in front of the church has nothing to do with construction.

However, Dunston says he went inside the church, had prayer, business-as-usual.

It was when he got close that Dunston realized what was written.

“I rode over the top of it, and I know I said, ‘wait a minute,’ and I backed up and I said well, ‘this just don’t make no sense,’” says Dunston, “so I just went on to the house and went home and got my phone, came back and took a picture of it because I just couldn’t believe that people are like this in this year.”

Evelyn Stewart lives in the alley behind the church, and it was one of her grandkids who told her what was written in front of the church.

“My granddaughter took pictures and she was like, ‘are they supposed to do that?’ and I said, ‘no it’s not supposed to happen like this,’ but sometimes you have ignorant people,” says Stewart.

She says she couldn’t believe it, and went to see for herself.

“I’ve lived here all my life. All my life, I’ve never seen that in front of the church, never,” says Stewart.

Down the street from the church is a business with a camera pointed right where the word is written.

Police told Stewart and Dunston they were reviewing security footage to see who could’ve done this.

Dunston says he’s filed to run for Mount Vernon Mayor, and it was after he filed that this all happened in front of his church.

However, he says a hateful action like this won’t stop him.

“I want everybody to know, that shall not deter me,” says Dunston, “you can write everything you want to write, don’t make no difference. What that does is inspire me to do better. I know now we need to do something here in this city to try to keep this stuff gone.”

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