Armed man wearing tie dye shirt attempts to cut down tarp covering Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville

The man, who according to the local ABC affiliate also had a pistol, used a knife to try and cut down the black fabric. Workers covered both the Lee statue, and another of Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson after the city council unanimously voted to do so on Monday.

The man seen in multiple videos posted online, identified as John Mishka, called the vote “illegitimate.”

“This is a desecration, and this needs to come down, OK? This cover needs to come down, now if this city was so adamant why are we not having a public referendum and vote over this,” the man said.

He also said, “Slavery was the birth defect of America, and it was wrong.”

Video from NBC News shows that the hole the man cut into the fabric was later patched up.

The move to cover the monuments follows the violence in the city two weekends ago, when white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups protested the removal of the Lee statue. Counter-protesters confronted those groups, and one women died and 19 others were injured when a car plowed through a crowd of counter-protesters.