African Burial Ground Vandal Tracked On Surveillance Video: NYPD

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — Authorities are scouring surveillance footage of the African Burial Ground National Monument after it was defaced with a racist slur last week, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

The NYPD, Federal Protective Services and the National Parks Service are working to track down the vandal who scrawled "Kill N-----s" in black marker on a plaque at the federal monument last week.

Authorities have "recovered several pieces of video" but none that are clear enough to share with the public. They have developed a timeline of the incident and are tracking the suspect's movements through the slew of security cameras throughout the high profile section of Lower Manhattan, said the NYPD.

"We know when it occurred — we believe — we have extremely grainy video of that occurring and we’re beginning to track that person on video," said Dermot Shea, the NYPD's Chief of Detectives, at a Wednesday news conference.

"Hopefully soon we’ll have something probative we can put out that will really start the information coming in."

Mayor Bill de Blasio called the graffiti an "attack" on the African Burial Ground, which contains some 15,000 remains of the city's colonial African American community , and condemned the hate crime and a handful of other bigoted incidents that have swept the city in recent weeks.

"Tragically, we’re seeing many communities affronted," said de Blasio at the Wednesday conference.

"We’re seeing hate crimes towards the African American community, towards the Jewish community, towards the Muslim community, towards the LGBT community — it all has to stop."

City officials gathered in front of the sacred ground at 290 Broadway Monday to decry the hate-fueled graffiti and demand the desecrator be held accountable.

Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane Williams, a member of the Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, expressed frustration Monday with the lack of images released of the suspect.

"We need to know who did this and they need to be held accountable, because of course this is egregious, but people should not think they can just walk around writing this and then nothing happens," he said at the Monday gathering .

A stunned West Village poet stumbled upon the graffiti and took a photo that she shared with reporters before the National Parks Service scrubbed away the foul language.

Once it was reported, officers with the Federal Protective Services investigated the vandalism and documented the racist words. Afterwards, Parks staff promptly washed away the scrawl, said Minerva Anderson, a spokeswoman for the National Parks Service.

Some officials raised questions at Monday's news conference over whether a thorough investigation was conducted before the black marker was removed.

The National Parks Service pushed back on that charge Wednesday.

"Given the location of the defaced sign along a public sidewalk, it would have been intolerable to leave the racial slur any longer than necessary for the investigation," said Anderson .

"NPS does not tolerate vandalism or the desecration of the resources it protects. Following the appropriate investigation of any such incident, it is our policy to restore a site to its prior condition."

Photo courtesy of M. Stan Reaves/Shutterstock