Vandals splash yellow paint on Confederate monument in downtown Salisbury

SALISBURY, N.C. — A Confederate monument in downtown Salisbury was vandalized when someone splashed yellow paint on it early Wednesday.

The monument, titled “Fame,” stands at West Innes and Church streets. It depicts a Confederate soldier and an angelic figure.

The tribute honors Rowan County Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War.

It's the second time the statue has been vandalized in seven months.

As paint and water dripped down the statue on Wednesday morning, tempers flared and drivers pulled over to vent.

“These were Americans, and we’ve got these punks," Bill Stokes exclaimed. "I don’t know who they are. They do everything in the dark because they’re cowards doing this stuff to our statues.”

The statue has been a source of controversy for years.

In 2017, a group of more than 400 people called Salisbury Indivisible asked the City Council to move the monument.

[Salisbury residents concerned about racial tensions after Confederate monument vandalized]

Many of the group's members said the statue of an angel holding a Confederate soldier is a source of pain because it represents a history of slavery, oppression and terror.

The city’s first African-American female mayor, Al Heggins, is asking the statue's owners, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, to work with the city to find a solution, but the organization has refused to talk so far.

“Now that the statue has been vandalized again I’m hoping the UDC will want to come and sit down and engage in some collaborate problem solving with us," Heggins said.

Channel 9 has also reached out to the UDC. We'll let you know what they say if they get back to us.

Police said  they are still looking for surveillance video to find the person who defaced the monument.

If caught, they can be charged with a class two misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Cox Media Group