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Part of the flyer Champaign police believe is a hoax that was circulated in predominantly black neighborhoods, causing a firestorm on social media and threats to the family that lived at the address listed on it.
CHAMPAIGN — The occupants of a northwest Champaign home at the center of what authorities described as a cruel hoax have moved out, a neighbor said Wednesday.
The family that lived in the cream-colored house on North Willis Avenue received threats in the wake of locally distributed flyers purporting to invite people to a Ku Klux Klan meeting at their address last Friday night.
A next-door neighbor, Leeann Rutledge, said the occupants moved out within the past few days, leaving behind a tattered couch sitting beside a recycling bin, in addition to a pool of broken glass on the front door step.
The flyers were circulated in predominantly black neighborhoods, Champaign Police Chief Anthony Cobb said. That sparked a firestorm on social media and led to an investigation that Cobb categorized as ongoing in his address to the Champaign Community Coalition on Wednesday.
In a little over 25 years of working in local law enforcement, Cobb said he's never come across a case like this. Longtime NAACP leader Patricia Avery said it merits further discussion, no matter how the investigation turns out.
"That's probably a town hall conversation we need to have — about how do we deal with these pranks and how it impacts people," she said. "People are on edge and feeling anxious."
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