Police say a Confederate soldier statue at a cemetery on the Hilltop has been damaged by vandals who took its head.
Columbus police say vandals appear to have climbed on an arched memorial at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery and toppled the statue atop the monument to the ground. The soldier's head and hat were knocked off. Police say the vandals took the head but left the hat. Police say the vandalism occurred early Tuesday at the cemetery where around 2,000 soldiers are buried. The cemetery is owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Douglas Ledbetter is with the VA National Cemetery Association.
Confederate statues around the country have been targeted in the weeks following a white-nationalist rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia. A counter-protester was killed. Police had been monitoring the cemetery since the August 12 rally.