NATCHEZ — Adams County sheriff candidate Ray Brown got a call he wasn’t expecting Sunday morning.

At approximately 7:30 a.m., Brown was informed that one of his 8-foot-by-4-foot campaign signs at the intersection of LaGrange Road and Liberty Road had been defaced using racially charged verbiage.

The sign, bearing Brown’s picture, had been painted with a target over Brown’s forehead and the racial epitaphs “n—-r” and “KKK” painted below that.

“I thought our community was a little bit further along than that,” Brown said. “That is the point of my whole campaign, to move the county forward.”

Brown believes the vandalism took place late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

He reported the incident to the Adams County Sheriff’s Department.

Brown said once he was told about the vandalism, he went to the scene and took pictures of the sign. The sign has been removed.

“I have the sign back in my possession now,” Brown said.

Adams County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Maj. Ricky Stevens said the matter is under investigation by his office.

“We don’t have any suspects yet, but it is definitely under investigation,” Stevens said.

This is not the first sign Brown has had defaced since he began campaigning.

“I had a few others in different parts of the county and some in the city limits that were knocked over or torn in half,” Brown said. “In those cases, I was able to just put the sign back up or replace it.”

Brown said this incident was obviously different.

“It is upsetting for someone to put a target on my forehead,” he said. “And not just for me. It’s emotional for my family — my wife, my children, my entire family. This is a race for sheriff, a very important office. I just don’t understand how people think.”

Stevens said the type of damage done to Brown’s sign is unusual.

“In recent times, we haven’t seen anything like that,” he said. “Back in the past, it was an issue, but that was a long time ago.”

Brown isn’t the only candidate dealing with vandalism during this race. Randy Freeman also had multiple signs damaged in the past weeks.

Freeman’s wife and campaign worker Cheryl Freeman said they have had two signs destroyed.

The first was located on Morgantown Road. That sign, an 8-foot-by-4-foot campaign sign, was run over by a vehicle and then beaten with something similar to a sledge hammer approximately three weeks ago, Freeman said.

The second sign, located on Spokane Road, was set on fire Tuesday.

“We are shocked about this,” Freeman said. “We expected some sort of mischief in the campaign but to burn someone’s property, that is a hate crime in my mind.

“It is just vicious.”

Freeman said the incidents have both been reported to the sheriff’s office.

“It isn’t unusual during a campaign to have signs stolen, damaged or vandalized,” Stevens said. “If we catch them, we will definitely give the candidates a chance to press charges.”

The Freeman campaign sign on Spokane Road has been replaced, but the Freeman campaign chose not to replace the sign that was destroyed on Morgantown Road.

Anyone with information on either the Brown or Freeman case should call the Adams County Sheriff’s Department.