A street mural recently completed in Stockton and dedicated to the city’s minor league baseball team was marred this week by a driver doing doughnuts in the intersection.
On Monday, the bright red, white and blue colors of the Stockton Ports logo was mixed with a fresh layer of blackened tire marks on Fremont and Van Buren streets.
Stockton police are investigating the incident. The department said it has a video of the burnout but is not yet ready to release the images. Authorities told Stocktonia that a gray sedan appears to be the suspect vehicle, and they are working to identify the driver.
The person behind the wheel could face charges, including reckless driving and vandalism, officials said.
The mural was created by Kia Duras-Carter, who rallied community members to dedicate the crossroads at Fremont and Van Buren to the Stockton Ports, whose ballpark is nearby.
She began work on the piece in mid-August and regularly updated her Instagram followers on its progress. It took her and a team of volunteers two days to paint the giant replica of the team’s logo, finishing the large-scale piece just days ago.
But on Monday morning, she had a different update for her social media fans.
“Someone made a special trip downtown and tried to ruin our mural by going through the barriers and doing doughnuts on it,” Duras-Carter said on her Instagram page. “We did this to uplift everyone in our community including the people who think it’s cool to destroy the nice things we work hard to do …”
The Downtown Stockton Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes business and art in the community, sponsored the mural, providing $15,000 toward its completion.
The alliance told CBS News that it will cost $8,000 to $10,000 to repair the mural.
Organizers said they want whoever defaced the mural to help fix the damage. Duras-Carter told the news outlet people already have reached out to help her repaint.
“This won’t stop us from making moves to uplift our city and our community,” she said on Instagram.