Police investigating potential hate crime at North Dakota restaurant

A Somali restaurant in northeast North Dakota, which was hit with graffiti last week telling the owner to "go home," caught fire on Tuesday, prompting authorities to investigate the incidents as possible hate crimes.

Firefighters spent 20 minutes putting out the blaze at Juba Coffee and Restaurant in Grand Forks, North Dakota, about 250 miles (400 km) northeast of Bismarck, on Tuesday morning, Grand Forks Fire Department Battalion Chief Mike Sandry said.

The fire comes five days after graffiti was found painted in black on the restaurant's front window, said police department spokesman Derik Zimmel.

The graffiti appeared to be a Nazi symbol and the words "go home," from a photograph published on the Grand Forks Herald website. Zimmel said investigators are not convinced that it was a Nazi symbol.

"Are we considering it potentially as an act of hate or a hate crime? I think that is a possibility," he said. "But, it's also a possibility that it's not."

Investigators have yet to determine whether the fire was arson and if the two incidents are connected, according to Zimmel.