Vandals painted swastikas, a noose and derogatory references to blacks, Jews, Arabs and Mexicans on buildings at Coral Reef Park

Police are investigating racist and anti-Semitic slurs and symbols found painted on the walls of two buildings at Coral Reef Park on Tuesday morning.

Authorities are calling the vandalism a hate crime.

Park employees arriving at work just after 7 a.m. discovered the brown spray paint on the buildings that house the Jane Forman Tennis Academy, village park offices, a concession stand and storage for the Palmetto Bay Broncos, a youth football team.

The messages included swastikas, a noose and derogatory references to blacks, Jews, Arabs and Mexicans. One also mentioned Forman, who has run her tennis academy in the park since 1994.

''It was awful,'' Forman said. ``You see these types of stories on TV. It seems a little surreal to see it happen here.''

She also said she does not think the message against her was personal. There are signs with the name of her academy around the park.

''We know everybody here,'' Forman said. ``We're like a family.''

There were no indications that Forman or the Broncos were targeted, a Miami-Dade police spokesman said.

''There's no working theories and no suspects,'' Detective Mario Rachid said.

Palmetto Bay contracts with the county for police services.

Park staff painted over the graffiti after police looked for clues, so few residents saw it, Palmetto Bay spokesman Bill Kress said.

The village's summer camp at the park started Monday. But the 90 or so campers likely did not see anything Tuesday as they spent the morning in neighboring Coral Reef Elementary and later went swimming, Kress said.

This is the first large-scale defacing of property in the village's five-year history, he added.