Oakland police are investigating who might be responsible for the destruction of a sculpture honoring Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman who was killed in a police raid in her home earlier this year.
The ceramic sculpture, which was put up two weeks ago in downtown Oakland, bore the phrase “Say Her Name Breonna Taylor” on a plaque.
“It looked like someone struck it with a baseball bat or something very heavy,” Leo Carson, the artist behind the sculpture, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Carson said that he felt the act was an attack on the Black Lives Matter movement and Taylor herself.
“I was really devastated emotionally,” he added. “I was sad and angry. Really, it’s an attack on Breonna Taylor and Black Lives Matter and it’s racist intimidation.”
An Oakland police spokeswoman said the department is “aware of the incident regarding the vandalism of a bust honoring Breonna Taylor.” The incident has been filed and is currently being looked into by local law enforcement.
The artist plans to repair the sculpture and cast it in bronze. Carson has set up a GoFundMe page to help with the efforts, which has already exceeded its goal of raising $5,000.
Taylor was an emergency room technician who was shot by police in Louisville, Kentucky, when officers entered her home in March in a drug raid gone wrong. Protests rocked the country over the summer, demanding justice for Taylor and other black people killed in police custody this year.
