A historic Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” monument in Denver’s City Park was vandalized Tuesday, leaving authorities to determine if the action was racially motivated.
Missing pieces on the statue include a bronze panel showing Black military veterans as well as a bronze torch and angel, per The Denver Post.
In a statement to the newspaper, chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission Vern Howard said a member of the community told him about the shocking incident Wednesday morning.
“You can steal. You can take. You can pull. You can hate. You can do everything that you believe necessary to detour the message of Dr. King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission,” Howard exclaimed.
“We’re going to continue to march, to honor and to work toward freedom, toward justice, toward the end of racism, toward the end of hatred and the end of discrimination. We will never give up.”
The memorial was devised by artist Ed Dwight—who was this country’s first Black NASA astronaut candidate—in 2002 and features a bronze statue of King in addition to smaller statues of Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.
On Thursday, Dwight told ABC News: “Obviously, I’m extremely disappointed. But it was sitting there waiting to be vandalized...“It attracts people from all over the world that come here just to see this memorial. So for somebody to come and vandalize it is just disgusting to tell you the truth.”
Currently, the Denver Police Department’s Bias-Motivated Crime Unit is helping with the investigation to figure out who the guilty party is and if bias played a role in their actions.
Just last month, a Jackie Robinson statue was stolen from a Wichita, Kansas park. It was later found burned and destroyed; per KAKE, Wichita Police arrested and charged Ricky Alderete, a 45-year-old white man, with felony theft, identity theft, making false information and aggravated criminal damage.