Dartmouth Police Seeking Info on ‘Hate Crime’ at Burgo Basketball Facility

DARTMOUTH (WBSM) — Dartmouth Police are looking for the public’s help in the investigation into a hate crime.

According to police, officers responded at about 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 15, to the Burgo Basketball Association facility at 101 Slocum Road for a reported hate crime.

“Upon arrival, officers were shown a dumpster on which a derogatory term was spray-painted,” police said. Although the exact nature of the term was not revealed by police, the department did respond to a comment on its Facebook page, calling it “a disgusting racial term.”

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Steve Burgo, a Cape Verdean man, is the founder of the Burgo Basketball League. It began in the summer of 1994 in his own backyard, when he installed a basketball court with lights for his sons and their friends. It quickly grew into an actual league that eventually moved to its current home on Slocum Road.

The BBA brings in players from across the SouthCoast, including a large number of people of color.

Dartmouth Police are asking the public for its help “in obtaining any information or video footage from the area that may assist in identifying (a suspect),” police said.

“I am extremely discouraged and upset by this egregious and heinous act of vandalism,” Dartmouth Police Chief Brian P. Levesque said in a release. “It is certainly the hope of every member of the Dartmouth Police Department that if someone has information that can help us identify a suspect that they will immediately come forward with it.”

Anyone with information should contact Dartmouth Police at (508) 910-1735 or by using the department’s anonymous Tip411 system.