Published: November 16, 2009 11:30 pm      

Cross-burning probed: Home of United High School football player targeted

A West Wheatfield Township family that took in a black teenage foster child who plays for the United High School football team said they were targeted by a wooden cross burned outside their home over the weekend after his team lost a playoff game.

State police said Monday they don’t know who burned the 6-foot-tall cross, which Joe and Candy Walbeck said they were shocked to find charred in their yard early Sunday.

The Walbecks took in 16-year-old Shaq Howard three years ago as a foster child because he was having problems with his family, and they now have legal guardianship. They said Shaq, a junior who plays inside linebacker and fullback for United, is well liked in the community and at the school.

“Everybody accepts him. Well, apparently, there’s somebody who don’t,” said Joe Walbeck, a former coal miner who’s on disability. “I just can’t believe there are still small-minded people out there like this.”

The Walbecks have taken in about 16 foster children during the last six years at their home. They’ve had a couple of biracial foster children, but Shaq is their first black child.

They said no one in the community has expressed a problem with Shaq, an honor roll student and a starter for his school team, which had a 9-2 record but lost a district playoff game Saturday night.

Shaq said he was frustrated about the cross burning but wasn’t going to mope over it.

“I don’t wish bad on no one, but something has to be done about the ignorance and brutality of their crime,” he said.

Shaq, Walbeck and United coach Greg Mytrysak said they were unsure if Saturday’s loss to Penns Manor may have prompted the cross burning.

Police said the perpetrators face charges of trespass and ethnic intimidation.

State police spokesman Trooper John Matchik said Monday that troopers canvassed the area and are looking for the public’s help with tips.

“Possibly, people will hear people talking,” the trooper said from the Indiana barracks.

Matchik said such crimes are a rarity in the region. “I’m not directly aware of any other similar incidents in the recent past,” he said.

Anyone with information may call the Indiana barracks: (724) 357-1960.