Brewton “Hate Crime?

Willie Rabb says he found a hangman's noose inside the Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation in Brewton early Sunday. Rabb, a 15-year mill employee, says the noose was hanging from a rafter in a main hallway.

"It was hanging up high and hang a loop or a hangman's noose," says Rabb. "It's like a terrorist threat. It's like walking into somebody's house with a gun in your pocket."

Rabb called a representative with the N.A.A.C.P.

"It's offensive, it hurts," says Anthony McKenzie. McKenzie is the president of the Brewton N.A.A.C.P. chapter. "I think it's a hate crime, it's a terrorist threat."

McKenzie called the Brewton Police Department and the F.B.I. Both agencies say they're meeting to determine exactly what happened at the mill.

Plant manager Gary Miller would not talk to News 5 on camera about the noose, but in a written statement, Miller says the company is treating the discovery of the noose as a serious violation of company values and will work closely with authorities to determine the source.