Heather Heyer’s name was spray painted onto a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee in Roanoke, Virginia, according to police.
The Roanoke City Police are looking into the defacement of the memorial in downtown Roanoke.
The vandal used spray paint and motor oil to write the words ‘Rest in Power Heather Heyer,’ Roanoke Police Spokesman Scott Leamon told WDBJ7.
He said they were informed about the vandalism around 5am Thursday morning.
Heather Heyer’s name was spray painted onto a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee in Roanoke, Virginia, according to police. A cleanup crew is pictured trying to remove the spray paint and motor oil
Heyer died last month after a car mowed down a group of people protesting a Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Heather Heyer died last month after a car mowed down a group of people protesting a Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
White nationalists were there to show their support for the city’s statue of Lee that officials plan to remove.
Leamon explained that a television crew discovered the writing this morning.
The site of the Lee statue is right next to the WSLS TV station building, and Leamon said police are going to check if any of the nearby surveillance cameras caught the vandal.
Maintenance crews have been called to clean off the statue.
Currently there are no suspects, but police have urged anyone with information to come forward.
The vandalism comes amid a wide call to remove all remaining monuments to the confederacy around the United States.
On August 12 there was a violent clash between a group of white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville. Pictured are hundreds of white nationalist walking through the streets and hurling water bottles at counter protesters
There are currently 718 confederate statues and monuments in the United States- and 300 are in either Georgia, Virginia, or North Carolina, according to a study by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
On August 12 there was a violent clash between a group of white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville.
The Unite The Right group showed up to protest the removal of confederate general Robert E Lee, which was commissioned in 1917 and built in 1924 – nearly 60 years after the end of the Civil War.
The protest ended when a white supremacist drove his car through a crowd of counter protesters and killed Heyer, who was just 32.