Santa Rosa downtown businesses targeted with anti-LGBTQ+ stickers

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Santa Rosa police said Monday there have been "several instances" of city businesses being targeted by hate crimes and hate speech. 

Most of the businesses were in the downtown area and owned by members or supporters of the LGBTQ+ community. 

"Unknown people defaced private businesses with stickers promoted hateful rhetoric and used the stickers to cover up support for LGBTQ+ rights, Trans rights, and BLM," the police said, on the department's Facebook page. 

"The Santa Rosa Police Department is committed to supporting all members of our community and will not tolerate hate crimes," police said. "No citizen, employee, or business owner should be targeted and harassed for living their authentic lives or supporting their fellow citizens." 

Police said they've reached out to the affected businesses and began investigating each instance. 

The flyers that say "Happy Proud Month" were plastered on doors, windows, light poles and tree trunks all over town. They included a QR code and link to the far-right Proud Boys organization. 

"We do know it’s only targeting LGBTQ businesses or supporting allies," said Lt. Christopher Mahurin. "So any business downtown that had a rainbow flag or trans flag in front of it, those were the business that were targeted."

One of those businesses was Brew Coffee and Beer House on Healdsburg Avenue. The owners posted pictures on Instagram with a post that said, "Some haters tried to cover all our windows with anti LGBTQ+ posters in Santa Rosa. This is a hate crime and we wanted to blast it to raise awareness."

Dozens came to the café to show support, like Jessica Prichard who joined a group of friends for Trivia Night. "We all decided to meet up tonight - I think there’s trivia happening tonight - to show our support. And specifically, to show support for the LGBTQ community."

KTVU found identical flyers outside Santa Rosa High School, at Santa Rosa Junior College, and throughout downtown.

This happened while many in the area are celebrating Pride. Sonoma County’s Pride parade took place just over a week ago and there are other events scheduled throughout the month.

"Our community has been through so much. We been through fires, we’ve been through floods, we’ve been through fires again and then the pandemic. And then it felt like at Pride we were all coming together again. And then you just get something like this," said Nikki Winovich.

"This is a community that is really at risk," said Michelle Feileacan. "I have teenagers and I work with young kids. And to hear that people are out there basically telling people they don’t deserve to exist, it really hurts."

Police ask anyone with surveillance footage of the individuals defacing businesses to contact them at www.srcity.org/CrimeTips and refer to case number 23-7118. 

Police also ask businesses who have been targeted to report it at www.srcity.org/ReportACrime and refer to case number 23-7118.  

"These reports help to build a potential criminal case when a suspect is identified," the department said. 

KTVU's Elissa Harrington contributed to this story.