CLEVELAND — Police are investigating after a Sherwin Williams employee found a hateful symbol at the job site of the company’s new headquarters in downtown Cleveland.
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The employee is one of roughly 1,000 contractors working on the new Sherwin Williams headquarters, CBS affiliate Cleveland-19 reported.
He was horrified when he discovered that someone had etched a large swastika on the door of the new skyscraper’s 4th-floor elevator.
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“I was shocked that somebody would do that,” said a Sherman Williams construction worker who wanted to remain anonymous. “I’m old enough to know that there’s people like that out there, but for somebody to be that angry to want to do that to destroy property, to carve it into private or public property because it’s the way that you think, or feel is ridiculous.”
Cleveland police were called to the building on Tuesday. While no arrests have been made, the person responsible could be charged with ethnic intimidation and vandalism.
“They sent out a mass text to all the superintendents, everybody put their tools away and shut the whole job down for further investigation and called the police in,” the man explained. “The detectives came, took photos and the following day they had a safety stand to kind of inform everybody what was going on, reiterate their zero-tolerance policy of some this hate graffiti.”
The employee who found the hate symbol believes that it had to be done by another worker.
“There’s constantly Sherwin-Williams, corporate people, and Gilbane, safety coordinators walking around so it was pretty brazen and shocking,” he said.
Repairing the elevator door will cost the company more than $5,000, Cleveland-19 reported.
“I think this is a good addition to the city, to the skyline and to Cleveland, and it’s a shame that something like that could cast a shadow of something good that’s happening in the city,” the employee told 19 News.
The contractor for the project is Gilbane Construction. The employee told Cleveland-19 he was impressed with the way Gilbane and Sherwin Williams handled the situation.
“I think it was good the way Gilbane and Sherwin-William, how serious they took it and how swift they acted and in notifying everyone that that type of display of hate is not tolerated,” the man said.
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