SOUTH DAYTONA — The windows of Volusia County’s Republican Party headquarters were found shot out Monday morning and four bullet holes were discovered inside the offices.



Police were investigating the damage to the windows at 2841 S. Nova Road, a strip mall near Reed Canal Park.



Shattered glass and fallen campaign posters littered the sidewalk outside Republican party headquarters. Inside, volunteers pointed to bullet holes in the walls and ceiling.



“We have never had any kind of vandalism before at a Republican Headquarters,” Tony Ledbetter, the chairman of Volusia County’s Republican Party, said in an email Monday morning. “It’s a small strip center and no other business was vandalized, so it was obviously politically motivated.”

Ledbetter said he was the last to leave the GOP headquarters at 4 p.m. Sunday and workers in the adjacent businesses, including an e-cigarette store, a restaurant and a massage business, had closed by 10 p.m. No one heard shots fired and there were no injuries.



South Daytona police Capt. Mark Cheatham said the shooting incident happened between 4 p.m. Sunday and Monday morning.



“At this point we can confirm that at least four rounds were fired into the building,” Cheatham said. “We are working to see if we can get video from nearby businesses but so far we have no witnesses.”



Jewel Dickson, the Volusia Democratic Party chair, said political organizations have been reviewing security measures and taking precautions this year.



“Our reaction is it’s appalling,” she said of the vandalism targeting Republicans. “It’s a sign of things going wrong. ... I would not be quick to blame a Democrat for doing that. It could be anybody angry.”



The shooting comes on the heels of politically motivated violent acts including the South Florida man who federal agents say sent more than a dozen bombs to Democratic leaders across the country and the anti-Semitic shootings at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Eleven people were killed in the shooting in Pittsburgh and six others, including police officers, were shot in the apparent hate crime.