The Georgia Department of Public Safety headquarters was damaged after a group of apparent protesters vandalized the building early Sunday morning, officials said.
Between 60 and 100 people wearing dark clothing approached the DPS building on United Avenue about 1 a.m., the Georgia State Patrol said in a statement. The building serves as the headquarters for GSP and houses several other state agencies.
The GSP statement referred to the group as protesters and said many of them were wearing masks.
Several people were armed with rocks and carried spray paint and fireworks, police said.
“The group caused extensive damage to several windows along the front of the building,” the GSP said in a statement. A public safety vehicle that was parked outside the headquarters was damaged, and the building itself was “spray painted heavily in several places,” the statement said.
A small fire broke out in a DPS office after a firework was thrown through an open window, authorities said.
DPS personnel were able to put the fire out, but two public safety employees were treated for smoke inhalation after the incident, officials said.
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On Monday, several activists denounced the destruction, saying the vandals who broke windows and set fire to the building detracted from the message of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Events like that make Black Lives Matter look bad, and that’s not what we’re doing,” videographer Kelvin Carey told Channel 2 Action News.
Protest organizer Quinton Davis told the news station that those who vandalized the building showed up suddenly and immediately got aggressive toward police.
“I think it sends a bad message to the people in the community to think that they are with us or with Black Lives Matter or any other organization that’s positive,” he said.
Authorities have not said how much the damaged building might cost to repair. The GBI was called to help investigate the incident.
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