FBI to Join LAPD in Cross-Burning Probe

The FBI will join the Los Angeles Police Department in investigating a cross-burning incident on Thursday night targeting an interracial family in Shadow Hills, an east San Fernando Valley community, an LAPD spokesman said.

On Friday, neighbors in the tightly knit, horse-owning neighborhood were trying to make sense of what may have provoked the hate crime in which a burning cross was tossed from a passing car.

The six-foot cross was thrown on the driveway of Steven and Tracy Russell, who have lived in the 9800 block of La Canada Way for more than 14 years.

“Everyone loves them to pieces,” said neighbor Ellen Starksen, who said neighbors have rallied in support of the family. “Their phone has been ringing off the hook--that’s the only good thing that came out of it,” she said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, whose district includes Shadow Hills, called the incident “a despicable and cowardly act” in a statement Friday.

“Whoever was responsible was motivated by malice and spite, and must be caught and made to pay to the fullest extent permitted by law,” he said.

Police have made no arrests in connection with the crime, said Lt. Rick Papke of the LAPD Foothill Division.

A witness saw a dark car with several passengers driving up and down the street about 10:20 p.m. Thursday, its muffler roaring, Papke said. The witness heard a passenger yell a racial slur as a burning cross was tossed onto the Russell property.

There were still black marks on the home’s driveway Friday.

LAPD investigators believe the crime may be related to a recent dispute involving the Russells’ 18-year-old son, said Papke, who declined to classify the other people in the disagreement as white supremacists.

Although police do not know of any white supremacists in the Shadow Hills neighborhood, Papke said there are such groups in nearby Sunland and Tujunga.

Wachs will ask the City Council to offer a reward, said Patricia Davenport, a Wachs field deputy.

The perpetrators could face up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine, Papke said.

Residents could not recall a similar racist episode in the past. Many said that Steven Russell, who is black, and his wife, Tracy, who is white, are active in the community and well-liked.

Steven belongs to a neighborhood police support group, said Starksen, who has lived in the neighborhood 30 years.

“He was accepted here right away as part of the neighborhood,” she said. “We all like these people very much. There’s no reason for them to be singled out.”

The Russells declined to be interviewed.

‘It’s strange they would be targeted after so many years of living here,” added neighbor Ross Clay, 45. “It’s a form of cowardice. . . . We feel this was done as a prank.”

Neighbors said they were puzzled at what might have motivated the incident.

“It really bothers me this world hasn’t changed all that much since Hitler,” Starksen said. “Childhood prank or not, it’s still racist. . . . We just want [the perpetrators] caught because we don’t want them to come back.”