Racial Slurs Found Written On Downtown Business, Police Investigating

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – All you can hear at VIP Styles Barbershop is the sound of clippers buzzing and phone ringing for appointments .

VIP Styles is a busy downtown business located in the 400-block of Smithfield Street.

Most of the chairs there are full Monday through Saturday. But sometime Sunday, when the shop was closed, hateful words were written across the front of the African-American owned business.

It read: "We are KKK." There were other derogatory messages and racial slurs.

Sandra Burden opened the shop up on Monday and found the graffiti.

"I kind of froze. I stood there for a while and looked at it. I wasn't used to seeing anything like that," she said.

Burden immediately called shop owner Victor Musgrove and then the police.

After being in the same location for nearly 12 years without a problem, Musgrove was perturbed at the act of violence on his shop.

"I was upset that someone would basically be a coward and write those negative words on our business," said Musgrove.

There were plenty of people waiting for haircuts, trims or shape-ups on Tuesday. So what happened over the weekend isn't hurting business. However, it does hurt the spirit that Musgrove has used to fuel his business all these years in downtown Pittsburgh.

"I don't know the reason why they did it. Just a lot of hateful people running around," said the owner.

Workers like Burden aren't afraid either.

"I believe in God, so I am just going to keep coming through the door," she said.

Police are asking for leads. They hope surveillance video from the street will help.

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