A North Carolina sheriff said he has identified some of the people who toppled a decades-old Confederate statue in Durham Monday evening, and plans to charge them felonies.
Durham County Sheriff Mike Andrews told reporters Tuesday that investigators were preparing arrest warrants and planned to take them to a magistrate judge. Andrews did not offer what charges the individuals would face, and no arrests have been made at this time.
Protesters on Monday climbed the statue using a ladder and attached a rope around it. The crowd pulled on the rope and the statue, which depicts a single Confederate soldier, fell down, after which protesters took turns kicking the fallen statue.
Investigators have been combing through video footage of the incident to identify those responsible for toppling the statue. Law enforcement officers took video throughout the protest Monday in downtown Durham.
Andrews defended his decision not to intervene by saying law enforcement chose to exercise restraint in order to not exacerbate an already a tense situation.
The incident follows a weekend of violence in Charlottesville, where white nationalists gathered to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee and fought with counter-demonstrators, resulting in the death of two state police officers and a 32-year-old woman.
Law enforcement has offered no indication as to whether or not the statue would be put back up.
