SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — In Sacramento County, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a potential hate crime at the Ukrainian American House.
Early Sunday morning, the Ukrainian flag at the Ukrainian American House on Auburn Boulevard was vandalized. A swastika was painted over the Ukrainian flag on the front of their building.
It was caught on camera. The person can be seen in dark sweats with their hood up and face mask taking spray paint out of their hoodie pocket and painting a swastika on the flag.
The next morning, Vladimr Khodakovskiy was driving to church when he saw the vandalism.
“My son, Vlad, saw the sign on the flags. He said, 'Dad, look!' He scared me. I thought it was a car crash, and he said look on flag,” said Khodakovskiy.
That’s when they saw the symbol associated with Nazi’s painted on their flag. The father and son immediately went to the store to buy paint to fix it. They captured the moment on video.
“It’s hard for my heart,” said Khodakovskiy.
Khodakovskiy's brother still lives in Ukraine and his sister just came to the states two months ago as a refugee. The vandalism is especially difficult as the war between Ukraine and Russia reaches the one year point.
It’s a feeling Vlad Skots, the founder of Ukrainian American House, shares.
“Sort of two feelings. One of them make, we worry about our community, our neighborhood (and) the other with this guy who went to buy and dedicate his time to the repair, it shows us the community is very united,” said Skots.
The Sacramento County Sheriff‘s Office says once they finish collecting the evidence they will be able to officially call it a hate crime investigation.
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