Police are investigating two decapitated deer heads left near a Joe Biden and Kamala Harris political campaign sign and a Black Lives Matter sign in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
Police in Lake Oswego said in a news release on Friday they discovered the heads at different locations on Thursday.
One was found next to a Biden presidential campaign sign at an intersection in the morning, police said. The other was found on the front lawn of a home next to a Black Lives Matter sign in the afternoon, according to police.
A police spokesperson told NBC News in an email that no suspects have been arrested, and an investigation is ongoing. No other details were immediately available.
Sgt. Tom Hamann told Oregon Live that police will investigate the incidents as potential bias crimes but didn’t want to assume anything.
“Considering how contentious everything is with the election and everything else, people are losing their minds about it and drawing conclusions,” Hamann said. “We, of course, have to be careful not to do that and follow the fact where they lead us.”
He added that police have not completely ruled out animals as the culprits. He speculated that hunters could have disposed of the heads improperly, and animals grabbed them.
Peggy Lant, a resident at the home where one of the deer heads was found, told the news organization that the discovery was “horrifying.”
“I feel like we’ve been really violated,” Lant said. She added that she was particularly concerned for her two teenage daughters, who are Asian American and have experienced anti-Asian racism at school.
Lant told Oregon Live that she believes the discoveries were meant to intimidate her, but it won’t prevent her from keeping her Biden and Black Lives Matter signs up.
“I’m not taking my signs away,” she said. “I put another one up.”
