Amazon construction site paused again as another noose found

Amazon temporarily halted construction of a new US warehouse again after an eighth noose was found at the site.

Construction stopped at the Windsor, Connecticut, warehouse for the second time within a week on Wednesday.

Amazon said the site has since re-opened and it is working with officials on the investigation.

The company has also offered a $100,000 (£70,589) reward for information on the nooses, the first of which was discovered at the end of April.

Windsor Police Chief Donald Melanson said at a press conference that workers had found a red rope "with a noose tied at the end" on the fifth floor of the site.

The looped rope is synonymous with the extrajudicial hangings, or lynchings, of mainly black people in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

It comes despite Amazon introducing additional safety measures at the warehouse after the first noose was found hanging from a steel beam in the building on 27 April.

Five ropes "that could be interpreted as nooses" were found on several different floors two days later, with construction paused after a seventh was found last week.

Mr Melanson said on Wednesday: "This one was clearly a noose," labelling the act as "a hate crime".

Hundreds of construction workers employed by a number of different companies were working on the site, and the police said previously that they had limited information.

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Amazon recently increased the amount of reward money available for information on the nooses from $50,000 to $100,000.

A spokeswoman for Amazon, Kelly Nantel, said: "Hate, racism or discrimination have no place in our society and are certainly not tolerated in any Amazon workplace — whether it be under construction like this one, or fully operational.

"The site has reopened and we are committed to working with the town and all levels of law enforcement to hold the perpetrators accountable and ensure that all members of our community feel valued, respected and safe."

'Hateful'

But the latest discovery was met with anger by local officials.

Scot X. Esdaile, president of the Connecticut chapter for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said on Wednesday: "There's no way this should be happening in Connecticut in 2021. There's no way."

"The events of the past several weeks at the Amazon construction site in Windsor have been disgusting and hateful," said Ned Lamont, the Democratic Governor of Connecticut, and Susan Bysiewicz, Lieutenant Governor, in a joint statement.

They added: "This repeated behaviour is calculated, and clearly meant to stoke fear and encourage racism and bigotry. What we have been seeing at this facility is wrong, and we condemn these actions in the strongest of terms."

They also called for authorities to be "aggressive" in their investigation.

The Connecticut state police and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are assisting local police.