LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police in California are investigating a pair of graffiti death threats against Governor Jerry Brown found scrawled on Thursday in two locations in the Orange County city of Santa Ana.
Police said they were taking the threats especially seriously in light of heightened concerns for the security of elected officials after the January 8 attempted assassination of an Arizona congresswoman at a political event in Tucson.
The first of two graffiti threats, discovered Thursday morning, read: "We gonna kill Gov. Brown 2 14 11," according to Santa Ana police spokesman Corporal Anthony Bertagna.
Several hours later, police found a second message spray-painted in red: "27 more days 4 Brown," along with a swastika, Bertagna said, adding that someone later painted over the red "7" with a black "6" as if it were a countdown.
Santa Ana police alerted the California Highway Patrol, which provides security for the governor, and CHP detectives will take the lead in the investigation, Bertagna said.
Brown, a Democrat and former state attorney general, was sworn in this month as governor, a job he previously held for eight years starting in 1975.
"We're taking this very seriously, of course, especially when they put out swastikas and threaten the governor, and with all that's going on in Tucson we have to take this seriously," Bertagna said.
The graffiti threats came 12 days after a gunman opened fire on a crowd of people gathered outside a Tucson supermarket for a meet-and-greet with U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat who represents southern Arizona.
Giffords, who investigators believe was the attacker's main target, was shot in the head and gravely wounded. Six bystanders, including a federal judge and 9-year-old girl, were killed. A 22-year-old college dropout who authorities said had a history of mental disturbances is charged in the shooting.
Police in Santa Ana, an affluent city near the coast about 30 miles south of Los Angeles, said other graffiti threats and slurs directed at Asians, blacks and Catholics have surfaced in town during the past month.
