Hampton Police and the Atlanta Office of the FBI are investigating racist flyers distributed to residents of the Henry County city over the weekend, eight days after four people were killed in a mass shooting in the tiny community of 8,300.
The flyers were distributed throughout the city on Sunday and varied from messages of “Secure a white future” to “White Unity — Defend Your Race, Love Your People,” according to reports. Secured in sandwich bags, other messages appeared to tie the July 15 mass shooting to inclusion programs, the need for the nation’s white population to grow and the race of the shooter.
Andre Longmore, an Army veteran who lived with his mother in the quiet Dogwood Lakes subdivision in Hampton, is accused of shooting to death neighbors Scott Leavitt, 67; Shirley Leavitt, 66; Steve Blizzard, 65; and Ronald Jeffers, 66.
Longmore, who was killed the day after the shootings in a gunfight with law enforcement, was Black and his alleged victims were white. Police do not have a motive for the attack.
“The City of Hampton is disgusted by and condemns the actions of those responsible for the distribution of these hateful leaflets throughout our city,” the city said in an official statement from Hampton City Manager Alex Cohilas. “They are in no way representative of our city, our citizens, or our values.”
The flyers are the latest in an increasing string of racist incidents across metro Atlanta.
Anti-Semitic flyers were thrown in driveways in Kennesaw and east Cobb County in June; also in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody in February. Anti-Semitic messages were scrawled on buildings in Brookhaven in late 2022.
Devlin Cleveland, a Hampton city councilman, said the staff of his Main Street eatery, Welcome Home Creamery and Coffee, received the flyers on Sunday and turned them over to law enforcement.
“This is not a time for division,” said Cleveland, who believes the flyers’ distributor is not from Hampton. “This is a time for healing. I just don’t understand some people in the world today.”
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