40 x 40 ft Swastika was mowed into a field. Was it part of a chain of events that led to murder

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/a-swastika-was-mowed-into-a-field-now-neighbors-ask-if-they-could-have-done-more/2017/12/26/4e190a48-ea63-11e7-8a6a-80acf0774e64_story.html?utm_term=.41623386fc9e

Neighbors said the display of hate in a Lorton, Va., community was as large as it was shocking: a swastika roughly 40 feet across mowed into the grass of a community field.

Tire marks from a riding mower ran from the lot and up a road to the home of a teen who was known as troubled in the neighborhood, leaving little mystery as to the perpetrator, a neighbor said. Residents of Gunston Manor were soon debating how to handle the situation: go to police or talk to the teen’s family directly?

The latter plan won out — and now some regret that decision.

The incident came roughly two months before the 17-year-old allegedly shot and killed the parents of his 16-year-old girlfriend in their Reston home Friday. Scott Fricker, 48, and Buckley Kuhn-Fricker, 43, had forbidden their daughter from seeing the teen after family and friends said the couple discovered a Twitter account they believed was linked to the teen. It retweeted tweets praising Hitler, made derogatory comments about Jews, called for “white revolution,” and showed an image of a man hanging from a noose beneath a slur for gays, among other objectionable content.


Penny Potter, a neighbor, agreed to share the story of the swastika because she wanted it to serve as a cautionary tale to report early-warning signs before a tragedy occurs. She doesn’t know whether the Frickers would still be alive if neighbors had contacted police, but she believes there is a greater likelihood they would be.

“We live in a very safe neighborhood where kids can ride their bikes and not worry about anything,” Potter said. “For the first time, I was fearful that there was someone living in our neighborhood who was capable of incredibly irrational behavior. If you see something that makes you say ‘Huh,’ just call police. They can tell you if it’s appropriate.”

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