The mayor and police commissioner and a state senator were among those at the large mural in southwest Philadelphia honoring Sgt. Robert Wilson III, which the artist restored after acronyms for two anti-police slogans, as well as a symbol used by anarchists, were scrawled upon it.
Mural of slain Philadelphia Police Sgt. Robert Wilson III vandalized with graffiti
"They don't know who my brother was," said Wilson's sister, Shaki'ra Wilson-Burroughs. "They don't know who he stands for. You ask anybody in this neighborhood who my brother was and they'll tell you."
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw called the defacement "blatant disrespect."
The police union earlier announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. Last year, a similar reward was offered for information on the defacement of another mural honoring Wilson in the Strawberry Mansion section of northwest Philadelphia.
Wilson was shot to death in March 2015 at a GameStop store where he had gone to buy a video game for one of his children. He was killed while trying to stop a robbery while he was there.
Brothers Carlton Hipps, 32, and Ramone Williams, 28, were sentenced to life in prison with no parole, plus 50 to 100 years, in 2018 in a plea deal that spared them the death penalty, angering the police union and some of the officer's relatives.