Today (Feb. 22), it was reported that a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial statue was vandalized in Denver's City Park neighborhood. According to NBC News, the Denver Police Department’s Bias-Motivated Crime Unit is trying to determine if race was a motivating factor in the incident.

The statue was created by Black sculptor Ed Dwight and installed in 2002. In addition to a life-sized bronze model of Dr. King, the art piece features smaller statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass at its base. A torch, an angel, and a panel depicting Black military veterans were said to have been stolen from the memorial on Tuesday (Feb. 20).

Vern Howard, chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission, shared a statement with NBC News after receiving word of the unfortunate incident.

"You can steal. You can take. You can pull. You can hate. You can do everything that you believe necessary to detour the message of Dr. King and [the] Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission,” he said. "We’re going to continue to march, to honor, and to work toward freedom, toward justice, toward the end of racism, toward the end of hatred, and the end of discrimination." Back in January, the Howard-led organization held a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Marade (a portmanteau of march and parade) to commemorate when Colorado recognized the late civil rights leader's birthday as a state holiday in 1984.

Howard also told FOX31 Denver that he isn't surprised by the timing of the vandalism. "I don't feel that it's a coincidence that it happened during Black History Month," he expressed in an interview with the news outlet. "I don't believe that it's a coincidence that it happened during the 40th anniversary of the commission here in Colorado. I just don't."