Vandals threw a pig’s head at the former home of a former California police officer who served as a defense witness for Derek Chauvin, the former officer accused of killing George Floyd, police said.
The incident took place early Saturday morning in the home in Santa Rosa, California, where Barry Brodd lived, Santa Rosa police said in a statement.
The department said Brodd was apparently targeted over his testimony.
“Mr. Brodd has not lived in the residence for a number of years and is no longer a resident of California,” the department said. “Brodd no longer lives in the city of Santa Rosa, it appears the victim was falsely targeted.”
A person at the home found the head on the front porch that was splashed with blood. The suspects, who were dressed in black, fled when the person called 911, the department said.
It is suspected that about 45 minutes later, the same suspects soaked a statue in a local mall with animal blood and left a sign with the caption “Oink Oink,” the department said.
The suspects, who are accused of vandals, have not yet been identified.
Santa Rosa Police Chief Rainer Navarro distanced his department from Brodd’s testimony and said in a statement last week that the former officer had not worked in the city since 2004 and that his comments “did not reflect the values and beliefs of does not reflect the Santa Rosa Police Service. “
In his testimony, Brodd compared the neck control that former Minneapolis police officer Chauvin used for more than 9 minutes on Floyd to an officer who fired a stun gun at a suspect who fell, hit his head and died.
“This is not an incident of lethal violence,” Brodd was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. “It’s an accident.”
Witnesses for prosecutors, who charged Chauvin with second-degree murder and other crimes, said Floyd died of low oxygen after Chauvin pinned him to the ground for an extended period of time.