Memorial For Key Bridge Collapse Victims Vandalized: Police

BALTIMORE, MD — A memorial for the six road construction workers killed in the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse was vandalized over the weekend, according to police and multiple reports citing the artist.

The elaborate memorial — located near the south end of the bridge at Fort Smallwood and Fort Armistead Roads — includes decorated crosses and a red truck suspended from nearby tree branches to represent one of the vehicles used by the workers who were on the bridge when the container ship Dali struck a main support and caused a span to collapse into the river below.

Roberto Marquez, a Texas-based artist who was working on a mural at the site, told the Baltimore Sun he arrived there Saturday morning and discovered the damage.

"I don’t know why they did what they did," Marquez told the Sun. "It makes no sense."

According to Baltimore City police, officers responded to the memorial around 6 p.m. Saturday after Marquez reported the damage. Police said Marquez noticed that "five out of the seven wooden panels were damaged" and had holes in them of various sizes.

As of Tuesday morning, no suspects had been identified.

The road workers killed in the March 26 collapse were all Latino immigrants who came to the United States from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, Patch previously reported.

Marquez traveled to Baltimore from Texas to contribute to the installation, which he called "a spiritual and emotional work of art," according to an interview with WBAL.

Marquez told WBAL he's suspending all work on the mural that he hoped to finish before returning to Texas next week.

"If I continue, it's probably going to be destroyed again because people — the ones that have hate — they'll come back again," he told the station.