The Black Lives Matter mural on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in front of the Trump Tower was defaced on Monday, but was quickly fixed, authorities said.
“For whoever smashed our mural on Fifth Avenue: Nice try. @NYC_DOT has already fixed it,” Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted, referring to the city’s Department of Transportation.
The Black Lives Matter movement “is more than words, and it cannot be undone,” de Blasio said.
The video showed someone splashing red paint on the mural, which was installed Thursday.
The New York City Police Department said it received a call around 12:15 p.m. Monday about criminal mischief at 725 Fifth Avenue.
“Upon arrival, they discovered that an unknown individual threw red paint on the Black Lives Matter street art,” the NYPD said. “There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing.”
The video obtained by NBC New York showed a man drop a can of paint and run away.
After plans for the mural were announced, President Donald Trump called it a “symbol of hatred.” The president tweeted at the time that he would be “denigrating” what he called a luxury avenue.
Black Lives Matter murals have been painted on city streets across the country after protests over racial inequality and calls for police reform following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on May 25.
Floyd, who is black, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck when he said he couldn’t breathe. That officer and three others have been fired by the Minneapolis Police Department and charged.
Last week in the city of Martinez, in the San Francisco area, prosecutors charged two people accused of defacing a street mural on July 4 for a hate crime.
