A man was hospitalized after attending a protest that saw parts of a Confederate monument ripped to the ground by protesters in Portsmouth, Virginia.
The unidentified man was standing in front of one of four white bronze figures when it was pulled down by protesters Wednesday night. The monument fell directly on his head as bystanders looked on with horror.
President of @BLM757 describes what he saw of the incident. He says afterwords you could see part of the mans skull. He is Asking everyone to pray for the man who believes was in his 30s @WAVY_News pic.twitter.com/Lh5vQSVtOX
— Brett Hall (@BrettHNews) June 11, 2020
“We witnessed them taking down the monument, the Confederate monument, there was an individual in the front, they were pulling on a cord, and they had been working at the legs for some time. They had been trying to get it down,” said an onlooker. “There was a gentleman who was directly in front of the statue and when the statue finally did give way it came and fully hit him in the head, and we could see that his skull was actually showing, he was convulsing on the ground, he lost a great amount of blood, and we’re just asking for everyone to pray for that man right now.”
Sgt. Misty Holley of the Portsmouth Police Department confirmed that a 30-year-old man had lost consciousness after being hit with the monument and had to be rushed to the hospital.
Hundreds gathered for the event, which took on celebratory tones as a local band played music and revelers chanted and celebrated before pulling down the statue. On June 1, University of Alabama at Birmingham professor Sarah Parcak spent hours on Twitter detailing how to topple a monument properly, but the Portsmouth protesters did not heed her directions.
Protests against police brutality and systemic racism stemming from the death of George Floyd, who died while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department, have spread around the world. Statues and monuments for explorer Christopher Columbus, U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Abraham Lincoln, and many Confederate figures have been ripped down or defaced over the last week.
