HOUSTON – A Houston singer has a message for the person who left a symbol of hate outside her southwest Houston home.
When Local 2 arrived, the rope remained around a tree, though it was no longer tied into a noose as it was when Erica Nicole Harris first noticed it outside her home.
Harris travels the city performing for adoring fans, and her music is all about inspiring love, not hate.
When she returned home from a gig over the weekend, she saw nothing strange. But as she walked a friend who was leaving outside, there it was.
"She (the friend) points up, ‘Erica. What is that?' and I looked at it and (thought) that can't be what I think it is. My heart started beating fast," Harris said. "I saw a noose hanging in a tree. I've never seen anything like that before."
Harris called 911 and an officer came out and untied it. Neighbors say they didn't see anyone or anything suspicious. Harris doesn't know if the person who left the noose lives in her complex, or if someone followed her in.
"At first I was just a tad scared, but fear turned into anger," she said.
Harris has a message of her own she wants to send to the person who hung the noose.
"I want that person to realize what they did, and to know that I think they are a coward," she said, adding that if the goal was intimidation, it did not work.
Harris has no plans to move.