A comic-style mural showing Superman punching an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the face was defaced with black paint Sunday, less than a month after another Pilsen mural was defaced nearby.
Vandals covered Superman’s image on the mural on a viaduct at 18th Street and Western Avenue, but they left the ICE agent being punched untouched. A tray and roller with black paint were left beneath it Sunday afternoon.
The mural contains the signature of local artist Viril The Mouse, who didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment and didn’t return a request for comment when the mural first appeared last month.
The city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation also didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
It comes less than a month after another mural, just a few blocks away, on 16th Street and Ashland Avenue, was also vandalized. That mural depicts a Mexican man and a Palestinian man resting peacefully in a field.
According to Natalie Figueroa, who was attacked trying to stop the defacement, the vandal painted the word “Israel” over it, burned off the face of the Palestinian man and spread feces on the wall and sidewalk nearby.
Contributing: Tyler Pasciak LaRivieire, Cindy Hernandez