Brick with racial note thrown into home

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A family in east Austin received a startling wakeup Friday morning. Barbara Frische and her two young children were asleep at 6am when they heard a loud crash.

Frische rushed into the children’s bedroom and found her son sitting up in bed confused.   As she looked around her son, Frische noticed glass covered his bed.

Someone had thrown a large brick through the double-paned window of the child's bedroom.  Frische immediately called police.

But what surprised her the most was the note found on the brick, which said “keep Eastside Black, keep Eastside strong.”

“We’ve never had anything like this happen before, ever,” said Friesch, who is white.  Her family has lived on East 13th street and Chicon for 10 years.

Amidst the commotion, Frische was glad her two sons were okay.

“You can live anywhere and something bad can happen to you, but at the same time, this type of crime wouldn’t have occurred anywhere else in Austin.”

She received recent media attention for lobbying action on a charred house that neighbors said had been a gathering place for drug dealers, prostitutes and squatters.  Frische said she did not believe this crime was caused by the coverage.

“It was hard to even discuss it this morning without crying and I'm just exhausted at this point,” she said.

Police are still looking into the case.  APD spokesman Sgt. Richard Stresing told KXAN that they have not ruled this to be a hate crime.