LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – At least one suspect was caught on surveillance video destroying a social justice mural with paint and tagging it with a message of hate.
Trifecta Event Productions in the Portland neighborhood donated its wall to a team of local artists who came up with a mural featuring six people, including Breonna Taylor, David McAtee and George Floyd. It took more than 50 hours of work, and the artists paid for it out of their own pockets. The painting has been a message of justice, hope and peace.
"The community embraced it,” said Braylyn Stewart, one of the artists. “They loved it. Everybody local here comes here and takes pictures. They shoot music videos. They have wedding announcements here.”
However, surveillance cameras in the area of 11th and West Main streets caught at least one suspect vandalizing the mural sometime after 1 a.m. Monday. The video has since been turned over to Louisville Metro Police.
“The artist that did this, they spent multiple weeks on it. And in a matter of seconds, they just came through and destroyed it,” said Jordan Sabie, an employee at Trifecta who saw the video.
Surveillance cameras in the area of 11th and West Main streets captured at least one suspect destroying a local social justice mural with paint and tagging it with a message of hate.
Sabie said the surveillance video shows one man keeping watch on the corner while the other sprayed the wall.
“It was two kind of militant-looking white males,” he said.
The words “Patriot Front” — which is the name of a white supremacist group — were also sprayed in white paint on the wall.
“These guys are idiots, because there’s cameras everywhere. And just for them to be so ignorant to do something so childish, it just shows that the whole Patriot Front group are a bunch of idiots,” said Stewart.
Local artist Braylyn Stewart, who worked on the social justice mural featuring Breonna Taylor, David McAtee and George Floyd at 11th and West Main streets, works to cover-up a racist group's tag after the mural was vandalized in the early morning hours of Monday, June 28, 2021. (WDRB photo)
After turning the surveillance video over to police, Stewart covered the racist group’s tag. He said he will first try to clean off some of the blue paint before restoring the rest of the mural. Once it’s finished, he will add a protective coating to the wall to better protect it from future vandals.
“It’s definitely a sore spot with me right now. Until it gets put back to new, and it’s going to get put back to new. Upon my word,” Stewart said.
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