RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A statue of Jefferson Davis was torn down along Richmond, Virginia’s famed Monument Avenue on Wednesday night.
The statue of the president of the Confederacy was toppled shortly before 11 p.m. and is on the ground in the middle of an intersection, news outlets reported.
Richmond police were on the scene.
In Portsmouth, protesters beheaded and then pulled down four statues that were part of a Confederate monument on Wednesday, according to media outlets.
The Virginia-Pilot reports that efforts to tear one of the statues down began around 8:20 p.m., but the rope they were using snapped.
The crowd was frustrated by the Portsmouth City Council’s decision to put off moving the monument. They switched to throwing bricks from the post that held the plaque they had pulled down as they initially worked to tumble the statue.
The Pilot reports that they then started to dismantle the monument one piece at a time as a marching band played in the streets and other protesters danced.
A flag tied to the monument was lit on fire, and the flames burned briefly at the base of one of the statues.
A statue of Christopher Columbus in Richmond was torn down by protesters, set on fire and then submerged into a lake on Tuesday. News outlets reported the figure was toppled less than two hours after protesters gathered in the city’s Byrd Park chanting for the statue to be taken down.