'Murderer': Central Park Christopher Columbus Statue Spray Painted Red

CENTRAL PARK, NY — A pair of people spray painted red a statue of Christopher Columbus inside of Central Park, police said on Monday.

The duo approached the statue around 10:15 p.m. on Feb. 26, and wrote in red spray paint the messages, "Murderer" and "Give Us Our Land Back," police said.

The two people also sprayed red paint along the upper half of the 15-foot monument that stands north of the 65th Street transverse along the south end of the mall within the famous Manhattan park, police said.

The pair then fled in an unknown direction, police said.

WANTED CRIMINAL MISCHIEF On 2/26/23 @ 10:14 PM, @NYPDCentralPark the unk individuals sprayed in red paint the words "Murderer" & "Give Us Our Land Back" on the Christopher Columbus statue located inside Central Park. Any info call us at 800-577-TIPS pic.twitter.com/V4MiHFUhwz
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) March 7, 2023

This is a different Christopher Columbus monument than the more well-known statue within Columbus Circle.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

It is not the first time that the Central Park Columbus was defaced, in 2017 it was also stained with red paint and the message — "Hate will not be tolerated."

Both the Central Park and Columbus Circle depictions of the Italian explorer have been surrounded by barricades on and off for years due to fears of defacement.

In 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo defended the Columbus Circle monument as a symbol of "Italian-American legacy" amid elevated calls to remove it.

Cuomo's response followed a question about whether it was the right time to take down the Upper West Side statue, which came as Columbus monuments across the country were getting toppled or beheaded as police brutality protesters spurred by the killing of George Floyd called for Confederate and offensive monuments to be taken down.

In New York City, a petition to change the name of Columbus Circle and take down the 14-foot statue of Columbus at the top of its monument gained more than 15,000 signatures.

"Christopher Columbus was a white colonist who slaughtered thousands of Native Americans on their own soil," the petition reads. "Honoring him is honoring those murders. We shouldn't be memorializing someone who began mass genocide and enslavement in America."

A report the mayor commissioned about offensive and problematic monuments ultimately called for keeping the statue in place and instead adding historical makers.