The Durham Police Department is investigating a suspicious letter that was addressed to Chief of Police Patrice Andrews Tuesday morning.
At around 7:15 a.m., a letter addressed to Andrews was opened in the chief's office suite. Police said the letter contained a threatening message that contained racial slurs directed at Andrews and an unidentified substance.
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The Durham Fire Department responded and tested the substance. It did not test positive for any known harmful substance. Fire officials said that upon further inspection, the substance looked more sandy and granular rather than a powder.
The DPD Forensics Unit collected the substance and the police department is investigating the source of the letter. Police said there is no known threat to the safety of the police staff and the public.
Andrews has recently been at the center of scrutiny after posts she made on her private Facebook social media about the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
In the now-deleted Facebook post on her personal page, Andrews said she's outraged by people she knows who still support Kirk.
“I won't stop being outraged at the way this man is being honored by people that I thought I knew,” Andrews wrote in the deleted post. “This man, who disguised himself as a Christian, shamed Black women like me, believed that gun violence was necessary to preserve the 2nd amendment, and created a culture of divisiveness through hate speech."
One of Kirk's comments about Black women came on Jan. 3, 2024, on his podcast when he said: “If I'm dealing with somebody in customer service who's a moronic Black woman, I don't -- I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because affirmative action? It almost creates thought patterns that are not necessarily wholesome. It creates resentment, doesn't it? This is not a way to design society.”
Andrews wrote, "So, at the time of his death, I chose to give him the empathy that he didn't believe in and certainly didn't believe that people like me deserved. But to know many of you STILL support him despite his horrible rhetoric.. I cannot.”
Durham public officials, including Mayor Leonardo Williams, voiced their backing for Andrews, stating that freedom of speech is accessible to all.
"I am concerned that folks are going to this extent," Williams told WRAL News on Tuesday.
Williams said he called Andrews on Tuesday to make sure she is OK.
"She says she was shaken up a bit, but she's going to push through," Williams said.
Williams said he's already making changes.
"I called my assistant and I said, 'Do not open any mail that doesn’t have a return address,'" Williams said.
Williams played a voicemail for WRAL News a caller left him that cursed him out. He said there’s a clear line when the speech turns threatening.
"We will find them," Williams said. "We will do everything we can to find them and they will have the exercise implicated and executed of the law to our extent."