Officials in Mississippi have launched a hate crime investigation after a 12-year-old received a “disturbing” doll during a festival.
The incident took place at Krewe of Nereids parade, a Mardi Gras festival in Waveland, Miss., the Sun Herald reports.
Nicole Fairconeture told the newspaper that her daughter received the doll from a man on a New Orleans Saints-themed float.
“She grabbed the item, put it to her chest, and was coming back.
[The man] called her back and when she turned around, he said, ‘That’s you’ ”.
The toy, which Fairconeture said “was dressed like a slave,” also had a string of beads tied around its neck.
Fairconeture said she believed the beads were meant to resemble a noose.
Fairconeture quickly called over a police officer and one of her family members filed a report.
Mike Smith, Waveland’s mayor, told the Sun Herald his town’s police department is working with officers to investigate the case as a hate crime.
“When I saw that it had happened, it infuriated me.
The Waveland Police Department will certainly do whatever it can to aid Bay St.
Louis [police] in trying to get to the bottom of it.”