Vandals threw a pig’s head at the one-time home of a former California police officer who served as a defense witness for Derek Chauvin, the ex-officer accused of killing George Floyd, police said.
The incident occurred early Saturday morning at the house in Santa Rosa, California, where Barry Brodd used to live, the Santa Rosa Police Department said in a statement.
The department said Brodd appeared to have been targeted over his testimony.
“Mr. Brodd has not lived at the residence for a number of years and is no longer a resident of California,” the department said. “Because Mr. Brodd no longer lives in the city of Santa Rosa, it appears the victim was falsely targeted.”
A person at the home found the head on the front porch, which was splattered with blood. The suspects, who were dressed in black, fled as the person called 911, the department said.
The same suspects are believed to have drenched a statue at a local mall in animal blood about 45 minutes later and left a sign that read, “Oink Oink,” the department said.
The suspects, who are accused of felony vandalism, have not yet been identified.
Santa Rosa Police Chief Rainer Navarro distanced his department from Brodd’s testimony, saying in a statement last week that the former officer hadn’t worked in the city since 2004 and that his comments “do not reflect the values and beliefs of the Santa Rosa Police Department.”
In his testimony, Brodd compared the neck restraint that former Minneapolis police officer Chauvin used on Floyd for more than 9 minutes to an officer firing a stun gun at a suspect who falls, hits his head and dies.
“That isn’t an incident of deadly force,” Brodd said, according to the Associated Press. “That’s an incident of an accidental death.”
Witnesses for prosecutors, who have charged Chauvin with second-degree unintentional murder and other crimes, have said Floyd died from low oxygen after Chauvin pinned him to the ground for an extended period of time.