Brockport police investigating rock thrown into home as hate crime

BROCKPORT, N.Y. (WROC) — Officers with the Brockport Police Department are investigating a hate crime after a rock was thrown into a home displaying a pride flag.

Allison Parry-Gurak and her wife have lived in the Brockport community for eight years and said they have never seen an incident like this happen before. It’s also not the first recent incident.

“We chose to do a pride flag this year because it’s important my boys see that this is us, this is our life, this is who we are and, unfortunately, this is also part of it,” Parry-Gurak said.

The mom of two is staying home from work Wednesday to install security cameras outside her home. Sometime in the overnight hours, a rock was thrown through the first-floor double-paned window.

“This morning, my wife had gotten up to go take the kids to daycare and she went outside and she said that the window was broken. She came back inside and yelled up the stairs for me — I came down and we had noticed that the window was broken, there’s a rock over there. This flag right here was thrown on the ground,” Parry-Gurak said.

“We’re investigating as a hate crime and when we do so, you have to establish the cause of the suspect as to why they targeted a certain home, and in this case, we feel it is due to the progressive pride flag,” said Brockport police Sargent Robert Hagen.

Parry-Gurak is keeping a positive attitude with plans to make this a teachable moment for her kids. She also said the family is not planning to move [“No way, I love my home!”], and the pride decorations are staying up.

A situation less than a week ago next door, however, is causing concern.

“So our neighbor over here next door on, I think it was Friday into Saturday so that overnight hours — she had her pride flag ripped down as well,” Parry-Gurak said. “It had done some damage to their garage siding.”

“My fear is that it’s going to escalate,” she said. “I think that it started from a flag being ripped off from our neighbor’s and now it’s being escalated to a rock being thrown through our window, so I do have a fear it’s going to escalate. However, I trust our community that surrounds me.”

As far as the monetary impact this incident has had, Allison is getting a quote for the window and screen this week. That security camera system, however, just cost her about $500. In the immediate aftermath of this ordeal, Parry-Gurak is feeling a range of emotions.

“I feel a little adrenaline going and a little discombobulated today just because I think I’ve gone through all the stages,” she said. “You know I was really sad this morning, I was angry. I’m also feeling hopeful because, like I said, the community is surrounding us right now and I don’t feel this was personally an attack on me. I think it was an attack on my community, unfortunately.”

Officials with the Brockport Police Department say they are increasing patrols in the area.