A statue honoring Jackie Robinson outside a ballpark in Brooklyn was defaced with racist epithets, prompting police in New York City on Wednesday to treat the matter as a hate crime.
A manager at MCU Park, home of the New York Mets-affiliated Brooklyn Cyclones, discovered the vandalism on Wednesday morning, according to the Associated Press. Swastikas and the words “Heil Hitler” were written on the statue in black marker.
Team officials covered up as much of the graffiti as they could prior to Tuesday’s game between the Cyclones and Connecticut Tigers, but were reportedly struggling to remove some from the statue’s base.
Police are searching for video evidence.
The statue depicts Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers legend who broke baseball’s color barrier, with his arm around teammate Pee Wee Reese.
