Urban Outfitters Sorry for Bloody Kent State Shirt

Urban Outfitters on Monday apologized for selling an apparently bloody Kent State sweatshirt.

The sweatshirt has been removed from the retailer’s website, but it was described as a “Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt,” and listed at $129.

The Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed college students and wounded nine others on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University. The students were protesting the Vietnam War.

Kent State called the shirt “beyond poor taste.”

“May 4, 1970, was a watershed moment for the country and especially the Kent State family,” the Ohio university said in a statement. “We lost four students that day while nine others were wounded and countless others were changed forever.

“We take great offense to a company using our pain for their publicity and profit,” the statement continued. “This item is beyond poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still hurts the Kent State community today.”

Urban Outfitters said that it hadn’t meant the sweatshirt as a reference to the 1970 shooting.

“Urban Outfitters sincerely apologizes for any offense our Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt may have caused,” the Philadelphia-based retailer said in a statement. “It was never our intention to allude to the tragic events that took place at Kent State in 1970 and we are extremely saddened that this item was perceived as such.”

Kent State suggested that Urban Outfitters executives learn more about the events of May 4, 1970. “We invite the leaders of this company as well as anyone who invested in this item to tour our May 4 Visitors Center, which opened two year ago, to gain perspective on what happened 44 years ago and apply its meaning to the future.”