Local News in Brief : Man Moves Family After Cross Burning

A black man who awakened to a burning cross in front of his Santa Clarita house said Friday that he has moved his family out as a safety precaution.

“My wife will never be the same,” Derrick Quals said. “She’s hysterical. I have a 4-year-old daughter and a 9-month-old son. How do you explain a cross burning to them?”

Quals, who owns a string of liquor stores in South-Central Los Angeles, said he will remain in the house but that his wife and children will be staying with relatives until they feel it is safe to return.

Quals spoke on the patio of his $500,000 five-bedroom, Spanish-style home, joined by Jose De Sosa, president of the California State Conference of the NAACP and of the San Fernando Valley Chapter of the group. De Sosa said his organization will ask the state attorney general’s office and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to look into the Thursday morning cross-burning, which is already under investigation by the FBI and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.