Heil Hitler!': Vandals Deface Iconic Jackie Robinson Statue in Brooklyn

NBC New York.

NEW YORK (TheBlaze/AP) -- New York City police are investigating swastikas and racial slurs scrawled on a statue of Jackie Robinson and a teammate outside Brooklyn's minor league baseball stadium.

A manager at MCU Park noticed the defacement Wednesday morning. The words "Heil Hitler," "Die ni**er," "F**k ni**er" and "F**k Jackie Robinson” were scrawled on the statue in black marker.

“We did our best to cover it up to try to avoid exposing it to the kids,” said the Brooklyn Cyclones' director of communications Billy Harner.

“It’s a symbol of equality and tolerance, and for someone to do that, it’s just mind-boggling,” he added.

Workers were forced to use duct tape to cover up the vandalism. They are still trying to remove marker from the stone.

"Graffiti & racist slurs were discovered on the Jackie Robinson statue outside MCU Park in Brooklyn." (@eyewitnessnyc)

"Workers removing vandal spray paint from Jackie Robinson statue. Cyclones park." (@glennschuck)

Police are investigating it as a hate crime and are hunting for video evidence.

The statue is of Robinson and his Brooklyn Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese.

MCU Park in Coney Island is the stadium for the Brooklyn Cyclones, a minor league affiliate of the New York Mets. The team marked the return of professional baseball to Brooklyn, which lost the Dodgers to Los Angeles in the late 1950s.

Defacing “the Jackie Robinson statue is a dagger in the heart to everything America stands for, and I hope those who are responsible are caught, punished and taught why what they did is so disgusting and offensive,” said New York Senator Chuck Schumer in a statement.

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Featured image AP photo.