Police believe the mother of a biracial football player may have defaced her own home with racist graffiti aimed at her son that led to the cancellation of his team’s season.
Court papers unsealed Wednesday show that police said Andrea Brazier lied to investigators and stopped cooperating when she was asked to make a formal written statement.
After police executed a search warrant at the home, investigators said Brazier was “in possession of any and all instruments pertaining to the crime of defacing property,” and police seized two cans of spray paint and one live round of 12-gauge ammunition and four live rounds of 20-gauge ammunition.
Brazier’s son, 13-year-old Isaac Phillips, quit the Lunenburg High School football team and transferred to another school after finding a racial slur painted Nov. 15 on his home’s foundation.
Officials at Lunenburg High cut short the football season for safety reasons after Brazier told police she suspected one of her son’s teammates had spray painted the message, “Knights don’t need n*****r,” and the superintendent and principal defended their decision even after police turned their focus to the teen’s own mother.
"I never looked at the cancellations as punishment, although it was certainly viewed that way by many,” said Superintendent Loxi Jo Calmes. “In the end, the safety of students and attendees at the games was deemed as of paramount importance. At no time did I or any employee of the schools indict or implicate players.”
Brazier, who is white, changed her story about a suspicious person spotted by her 6-year-old daughter outside the house, police said, and then blew off an appointment with investigators when she was asked to make a written statement.
When she finally met again with investigators, including an FBI agent and a polygrapher, police said Brazier started the conversation by saying “she was done with the whole incident.”
“Andrea stated she had painted over the graffiti and that she wanted nothing further to do with the investigation,” police said.
Police asked if her son or husband, who is black, had painted the graffiti, and she said they had not, and she told the FBI agent that she wanted the investigation to stop because she’d painted the message herself.
Brazier has not yet been charged, and police have not indicated why she might have painted the message on her own house.
Watch this video report posted online by New England Cable News:
