Confederate Statue Decapitated By Vandals In Columbus Cemetary, Police Say

COLUMBUS, OH — As passions rise over the existence of monuments to the Confederacy across the country, some opponents of the memorials have taken matters into their own hands and begun tearing down the statues without approval.

Now, one statue of a secessionist soldier at the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus has been decapitated.

Police say the damage was inflicted by vandals who took off with the statues head. They say the vandals appear to have climbed on an arched memorial in the cemetery and toppled the statue atop the monument to the ground.

The soldier's head and hat were knocked off. Although the head has disappeared, the hat was left behind. Police say the vandalism occurred early Tuesday at the cemetery where around 2,000 soldiers are buried.

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 Gen. Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia. A counter-protester was killed.

Police in Ohio had been monitoring the cemetery since the Aug. 12 rally.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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