(CNN) A statue of Martin Luther King Jr. in Southern California was vandalized with a swastika and other "horrific" graffiti that police are investigating as a hate crime, officials said. Officers from the Long Beach Police Department were called to King Park on Friday around 3:20 p.m. following reports the statue was vandalized with "hate/bias-motivated graffiti," police said. Officers discovered the graffiti covering the front of the statue, Long Beach police spokesman Richard Mejia said in a statement. Police did not share a photo of the graffiti but an image posted on Twitter showed a black swastika spray-painted on the statue's chest and SS bolts on a leg. The SS bolts are "a common white supremacist/neo-Nazi symbol derived from Schutzstaffel (SS) of Nazi Germany," according to the Anti-Defamation League .

Source: CNN July 07, 2021 10:18 UTC