Portland Fire & Rescue responded to a call to put out a fire at Mack & Dub's Excellent Chicken & Waffles restaurant early Wednesday morning. The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) is investigating the incident as an arson, burglary and possible hate crime.
According to a press release, an officer was patrolling the Boise neighborhood at 5:47 a.m. when he smelled smoke coming from Mack & Dub's, which is located on 3601 Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Upon seeing the fire, he contacted Portland Fire & Rescue to put it out.
During the investigation, officers came across racist graffiti.
According to Sgt. Pete Simpson of the PPB, "The question at this point for investigators is whether the graffiti was already there prior to this whole incident and is it older graffiti that just hasn't been cleaned or is it new and is there any connection to the fire and burglary? At this point we don't know enough to say for sure but it's one factor in the investigation and that's why we're looking at it as a possible hate crime."
As of press time, investigators haven't released any specifics on what the graffiti said.
Earlier this year, the Sons of Haiti Masonic Lodge was hit with racist graffiti but some questioned whether the source was necessarily a hate group, pointing to backwards swastikas as evidence.
Simpson stresses that the investigation is still in its early stages and details on the graffiti and amount of property damage are forthcoming.
As of press time, Mack and Dub weren't available for comment.