ASHEBORO N.C. – Fences are up around the Confederate monument located in front of the Historic Courthouse on Worth Street in Asheboro after it was vandalized with spray-paint last week.
Sometime on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022, the Confederate statute that sits in front of the historic courthouse on Worth St in Asheboro was vandalized with spray-paint. Within hours the statue had been cleaned by volunteers according to a press release from the Sons of the Confederate Veterans.
“Preserving memorials to Confederate veterans is the right thing to do.” said the group in the press release. “These veterans answered the call of their State and sacrificed their lives in defense of their families, friends, and neighbors.”
As one of the few remaining Confederate monuments in the Triad, it has been at the center of controversy, multiple protest, and government meetings for years. The City of Asheboro passed a resolution in September of this year supporting the relocation of the statue.
Randolph New Now reached out to the Asheboro Police Department who say that since the incident occurred on county property they have referred the case to the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office. As of Monday November 28th 2022, fences had been put up around the statute. As of this evening we are still waiting on an update from the Sheriff’s Office regarding the incident.
UPDATE – Nov 29th 2022 – This evening the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office released a statement. It reads:
On November 23rd, 2022, the Asheboro Police Department was advised that a memorial statue at the Historic Randolph County Courthouse had been vandalized. Upon investigating same, it was determined that the memorial had been spray painted with derogatory words towards the United States of America.
The Asheboro Police Department notified the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office due to the monument being on Randolph County property. The Randolph County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division immediately began an investigation of same and the area was canvassed for video footage.
Detectives located footage of the suspects with the help of surrounding businesses. Surveillance footage showed that on the night of November 22, 2022, two males, who were dressed in dark clothing and white shoes, had parked a vehicle in the area and walked to the site of the memorial, then vandalized the memorial by spray painting same. They then returned to their vehicle and drove away. The vehicle is believed to be dark in color and may possibly be a 2010 to 2015 Hyundai Elantra.
If anyone has any information on the incident, please contact 911, the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office at 336-318-6699 or Crime Stoppers at 336-672-7463.
UPDATE – Dec 1st 2022 – Randolph County Crime Stoppers has approved a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the subjects responsible.
Note from the Editor
The press release from the Sons of Confederate Veterans on November 26th, 2022, accuses the media of failing to cover this incident because quote “the outcome does not fit their narrative”. In fact, we at Randolph News Now were simply unaware of the incident. We contacted the Asheboro Police Department on November 27th, 2022, the day after receiving the press release. We did not receive a reply until November 28th, 2022, in which we learned the case had been referred to the RCSO. We forwarded our request to the Sheriff’s Office that same day. At no time did anyone submit a news tip or inform our news desk of the incident prior to the press release. We are still working to obtain details about this incident.
The staff at Randolph News Now is committed to providing both fast and accurate coverage of local news to our readers, however we are unable to report on what we don’t know or don’t know about.
We continue to encourage members of the community to contact us with information about news happening in Randolph County by either submitting a news tip on our website, contacting us by email, or sending us a message on social media.
