City officials and law enforcement are now blaming each other for the incident, claiming that no effort to stop the vandalism was made, and someone should have stepped in. Videos of the incident are included below.
The incident happened late Wednesday night at a monument to the Confederacy in downtown Portsmouth. A protest organized by the local branch of Black Lives Matter gathered around the monument and began taking sledgehammers to it. Ropes were tied to the statues on the monument, and protesters began to pull them down.
Black Lives Matter leaders claim Chris Green was standing at the base of the monument and trying to keep people away from the falling statue, but it fell on him instead.
Chris Green
A witness told area TV station WAVY "They were pulling on a cord and they had been working at the legs for some time ... and there was a gentleman who was directly in front of the statue" and it "came and fully hit him in the head, and we could see that his skull was actually showing. He was convulsing on the ground. He lost a great amount of blood."
The most recent update from authorities say Green is still alive at a local hospital, but his injuries are life-threatening and he is in stable condition.
A GoFundMe page has been established to help his family with medical expenses.
Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene is defending her officers, who made no effort to stop the destruction of the monument prior to Mr. Green's injury. She claims she gave no order to officers to stand down and allow the destruction of the monument to continue. However, she says a local elected official told them to allow protesters to keep tearing down the statue.
“It was a very unfortunate incident that should’ve never escalated to this,” Chief Greene said.
Prior to the injury to Mr. Green, Mayor John Rowe supported allowing protesters to vandalize the statues, calling it a "piece of rock."
Here are videos of the incident from WAVY.
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