WARREN, Mich. - Authorities were investigating as a possible hate crime gunshots and vandalism targeting the home of a Black suburban Detroit family who have a Black Lives Matter sign in their front window, police said Friday.

Eddie and Candace Hall said they heard what could have been gunshots outside their house in Warren on Monday, but dismissed the noise as fireworks.

On Wednesday night, someone painted a swastika on one of their vehicles, slashed the tires and threw a large stone through their front window. At that point, the family called the police.

“I thought it was bullets,” said Candace Hall of the stone through the window.

She said she “hit the floor” and crawled to check her 18-year-old son was OK. “And then my husband runs outside to see if he could catch whoever was doing this," she said.

Outside, they discovered the swastika and found that someone had daubed “terrorist Black Lives Matter,” “not welcome” and a phrase containing an expletive on their pickup truck.

Police returned to the scene late Thursday after someone fired a bullet through the Halls' front window. Officers found six shell casings outside the house, police said Friday.

Investigators were examining surveillance video that shows a masked and hooded man carrying what appears to be a handgun outside the home Thursday night.

“Somebody knows who did this,” said Bill Dwyer, Warren police commissioner.

Eddie Hall told The Associated Press Thursday that he and his family have lived in the city of Warren, just north of Detroit, for about six years.

“We haven’t had no hostilities since I’ve been in Warren, no problems with anybody,” he said during a news conference Friday “We kind of help out with each other around the neighbourhood. For somebody to do what they’re doing now is unacceptable.”

The Halls said they will not remove the Black Lives Matter sign.

“Our city is a true melting pot of many different races and religions,” Warren Mayor James Fouts said in a statement. “All help to make Warren a good community. They are all welcome but those who would peddle hate and cause destruction are not welcome in Warren.”

News from © The Associated Press, 2020