Protesters pulled down a statue on the Richmond Howitzers Monument from its pedestal. Washington Post photo by John McDonnell
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"You put it on our statues, I'll put it on yours," the man, his face covered in an American flag bandanna, says on a video recorded by a woman who shared the footage with The Washington Post.
The video does not show the man in the act of painting.
After he left, someone sprayed "BLM," for "black lives matter," over the original white graffiti, witnesses said.
A short time later, as a few women tried to remove the "white lives matter" message with cleansers and stainless steel scrubbers, the man returned with a brush and attempted to wipe off the "BLM" message, according to video taken by a different woman and also shared with The Post.
By then, a small crowd had gathered. Someone asked why the man had painted "white lives matter" on the tribute to Ashe, the first black Wimbledon men's champion, who grew up in Richmond and learned to play on the city's segregated courts.
"Don't all lives matter?" replied the man, according to the video. "Why is it OK to spray paint on this statue 'black lives matter,' but not 'white lives matter'? What's the difference? . . . They all matter. Everybody matters, right?"
Richmond police are investigating, department spokesman Gene Lepley said.
The Ashe monument was erected in 1996 amid great controversy as a counterweight to the five Confederate figures honored on the avenue.
The Lost Cause figures have been repeatedly vandalized since protests erupted in the city May 30 over police brutality against African Americans. All of the monuments have been covered in graffiti, and protesters tore down the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis last week.
They also have toppled three other statues elsewhere in town, including the Richmond Howitzers Monument on Tuesday night.
Ashe's statue had been spared until Thursday.
The man who took credit for spraying the statue drove a car with South Carolina plates but said on the second video that he lives part-time in Richmond, where he grew up.
Asked his name, the man replied, "My name is everybody - everybody that's here that has property value, everybody here that's paid to [expletive] live here, that's tired of seeing this [expletive]."
Fatima Pashaei said she and a friend were taking a walk along the avenue to see all the graffiti when they came upon the man painting the Ashe monument. Both recorded the man.
"This is actually the one monument that should be up here," she said.
The Howitzers monument was pulled from its pedestal by protesters shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday.
Unveiled in 1892, the monument honors an artillery unit that served in the Civil War. It stood near Virginia Commonwealth University's Monroe Park campus.
On June 6, a statue of Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham, which stood in Monroe Park, was toppled. A statue of Christopher Columbus was torn down and thrown into a lake at Byrd Park on June 9.
The statues have come down as protests have continued in Richmond and beyond over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.
A towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue has also been a focal point of protesters. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, is fighting to remove the statue, but a judge temporarily halted the move last week after the first of three legal challenges was filed.
A hearing in that lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday.
The toppling of the Howitzers Monument came hours into an evening demonstration that drew hundreds of protesters downtown.
Earlier Tuesday, Mayor Levar Stoney, a Democrat, ousted Police Chief William Smith after two nights of tense demonstrations outside police headquarters that involved the use of chemical gas and rubber bullets.
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