Christopher Columbus statue toppled, thrown into lake at Virginia protest

A statue of Christopher Columbus was torn down and tossed into the water at a park in Virginia on Tuesday night, reports said.

About 1,000 protesters gathered at Byrd Park in Richmond where they used ropes to topple the statue of the Italian explorer, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

“We have to start where it all began,” activist Chelsea Higgs-Wise told the crowd, according to the paper. “We have to start with the people who stood first on this land.”

Protesters surrounded that statue, which was festooned with graffiti. One held a sign that said: “Columbus represents genocide.”

After chants of “Tear it down,” the demonstrators used a rope to dislodge the 8-foot statue.

The group then dragged the statue about 200 feet and dumped it into Byrd Park lake.

The action came as a judge in Virginia blocked the removal of a statue depicting Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond. Statues have become a target of protesters since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.