Racist remarks and imagery posted during a Zoom bombing of a meeting hosted by the Fairfield Racial Equity and Justice Task Force are now the subject of a hate crime investigation.

Police say the group was meeting via video around 7:30 p.m. Thursday when an unknown person joined the public meeting and took over the screen-sharing aspect of it.

They say the Zoom bomber shared screen images of slaves and hurled racial epithets - some of which were directed at Black members of the task force.

"This wasn't free speech, this was intended to hurt people," says Fairfield police Lt. Antonio Granata.

First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick told News 12 she called the police chief as soon as she learned about the racist rant.

"I was disgusted that some coward infiltrated an important meeting; a task force that I established, which is supposed to be a safe place for people to have difficult conversations and said those things. I mean, it's outrageous, frankly," she says.

The task force was created following last summer's racial reckoning as people in the community and across the country protested systemic racism. Task force members are working to come up with recommendations on how to improve equity in town.

"I hope that the task force isn't deterred by this because this is one person, this is not our community," says Kupchick.

Police don't know yet if the attack came from someone local. They say they plan to consult with state and federal law enforcement during their investigation.

"These cases could be straightforward at times or sometimes highly complex, and it all depends on how much they kind of wanted to keep their identity hidden," says Granata. "But I know we're putting all of our resources together to try to see if we can find out who did this."

Offensive disruptions like this have happened across the country and Connecticut.

Racist Zoom bombers targeted a virtual town hall hosted by Rep. Jahana Hayes last fall.