Columbus statue, Black Lives Matter mural vandalized in Pittsburgh

Brian C. Rittmeyer
Tuesday, July 14, 2020 5:59 a.m. | Tuesday, July 14, 2020 5:59 a.m.

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Kristina Serafini | Tribune-Review

The Christopher Columbus statue in Oakland on Tuesday. The statue, which stands next to Phipps Conservatory, was spray-painted sometime Monday. The statue also was vandalized last month.

Tom Davidson | Tribune-Review

A Black Lives Matter mural along the Allegheny River on Monday, June 8, 2020, in Downtown Pittsburgh.

A Christopher Columbus statue in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood and a Black Lives Matter mural in Downtown Pittsburgh were both recently vandalized.

It was at least the second time in the last two months that vandals hit the Columbus statue in Schenley Park, the Trib’s news partner, WPXI-TV, reported.

Words including “no more racist,” “BLM” and “abolition now” were spray-painted in red on the statue Monday night, the station reported.

Some have called for the statue to be removed.

Police were investigating, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Antwon Rose II, who was shot and killed while running from a traffic stop in East Pittsburgh in 2018, is among those memorialized on the Black Lives Matter mural downtown. Those who created it were repainting it Monday after someone wrote “thug” over Rose’s face, according to WPXI.

Words on parts of the mural are too obscene to report.