“It’s completely sick.” Neighbors in shock after antisemitic hate flyers spread across Southwest Roanoke

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Disturbing antisemitic and hate flyers were plastered across Southwest Roanoke this past weekend, leaving the community in shock.

“After returning home from what was supposed to be a fun memorable night for a homeowner in the Franklin Colonial Neighborhood, turned into a terrible moment after finding hateful flyers messages in her neighborhood.”

“I was about ready to get sick. I mean, it just made me ill,” said Sandy Szabo, a neighbor who received a hate flyer.

Szabo had just dropped off her exchange student to prom Saturday night when she noticed a suspicious car being driven around her cul-de-sac.

“I think it was around 10 o’clock, the car came really slowly, but I didn’t think much of it,” she explained.

As she left to pick up her exchange student from prom, “I noticed something shiny, it looked like a piece of trash in our driveway. I figured I get it on the way back,” said Szabo, but when she returned, she was met with a disturbing message.

“It is a horrible flyer. Corn to keep it down. And it wasn’t just in my driveway, it was along the entire cul-de-sac down the street,” exclaimed Szabo. “It’s just completely sick. I mean, this was just one of three. There was one that was anti-Biden, anti-Trump, there’s one that was anti-migration, according to the police.”

Szabo was one of the many homeowners who found antisemitic and hateful flyers left in their driveway.

WDBJ7 had to blur out some of the flyers due to how inappropriate they were.

“It is hateful. I mean, as soon as I thought as soon as I saw it and was like, oh my God, this is total trash, this is totally hate. And I, you know, I don’t agree with that,” she said.

According to the Roanoke Police Department, eight Franklin Colonial and Grandin Court neighborhood streets had flyers in the driveway. Police collected as many flyers as they could.

“The police did go investigate the synagogue right around the corner. They wanted to make sure that it was okay,” said Szabo.

Rabbi Kathy Cohen from the Temple Emanuel released a statement saying, “These messages of hate have no place in our city.”

Officers have provided extra patrol in the areas and near local synagogues. The Criminal Investigations Bureau has reached out to the FBI to collaborate on this investigation to determine what, if any, appropriate charges may apply.

“Hopefully it stays small and hopefully they’ll get caught soon,” hoped Szabo.