MINNEAPOLIS — Surveillance video released from Cup Foods captures the moment a man spray painted the iconic mural at the George Floyd memorial just after 10 p.m. Tuesday night.
Billy Briggs who lives near 38th and Chicago witnessed the whole thing play out.
"Its devastating, it hurts," said Briggs. He went on to say, "I noticed a white boy in a hoodie with grey khaki shorts standing in front of cup foods with his hoodie up and I felt he looked suspicious."
As it turns out his suspicions were right.
"I look over and he's spray painting the mural and my adrenaline kicked in and I just started running after him, and as I was running I noticed him throw the spray paint can into a neighbor's yard so I made note of that," said Briggs.
After chasing the man off a few blocks down the road, members of the neighborhood security team say they were able to catch up with a man matching the description Briggs mentioned near Powderhorn Park where neighbors started questioning him, but the suspect never owned up to the dirty deed.
"He said he was there and he was afraid he was going to get robbed or shot and that's why he ran, he was barefoot," said Marcia Howard, a member of the security team for the memorial site.
After capturing the man's picture and questioning him, they let him go.
"The next step was doing a little detective work with our cell phone lights. We went four blocks down, four blocks east of the memorial and started looking for his shoes which we found four blocks away. Bill had chased that boy out of his shoes," said Howard.
What was once a mural serving as the face of the intersection, now sits defaced leaving a neighborhood shaken in the midst of trying to heal.
"You would come to our neighborhood and do this why? Why? What's enough?" asked Howard.
"I dare them to try it again," said Briggs. He went on to say, "to be honest we let that guy go but there are many people that did not want to let that guy go.”
Neighborhood security refused to call the police because they say they don't want them showing up anywhere near George Floyd's memorial, so no charges will be filed.
Vandalized murals related to George Floyd's death have been reported at least three times this week in various cities across Minnesota including St. Paul and Rochester.