Police in Oakland have launched an investigation after vandals damaged a ceramic bust of Breonna Taylor.
Installed just two weeks ago near city hall, the sculpture was created as a symbol against racial injustice.
Taylor was the Kentucky woman fatally shot by police in her home, when Louisville officers served a “no-knock” search warrant in March.
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Local CBS station KPIX reports the statue was created by Leo Carson, a food service worker prior to the pandemic. Carson told the TV station he thinks the bust was targeted because of racism.
“I don’t think there’s a single person in Oakland who doesn’t know who Breonna Taylor is, and I don’t think you attack a sculpture like that by accident,” he said. “And I think that it was an act of racism and an act of aggression and intimidation.”
Carson plans to rebuild the bust in bronze and has currently raised over $14,000 in donations on his GoFundMe page, after setting a goal of $5,000.
The bust has the slogan “Say her name,” along with Breonna Taylor written in larger letters underneath.
Local attorney Joe Cotchett said his law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, will help pay for the damaged sculpture’s restoration.
“She was a wonderful human being … The whole situation is preposterous — first her death, and now this,” Cotchett said.
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