Art work paying tribute to Kobe Bryant and his daughter vandalized with the word 'rapist'

Art work paying tribute to Kobe Bryant and his daughter vandalized with the word 'rapist'

A mural honoring Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna was defaced with the word "rapist" only hours after it was unveiled.

The art work was painted on the Sushi Hi building at Guadalupe St. and W. 29th in Austin, Texas.

Twitter user Rashad posted a photo of the mural early Friday morning, writing that the mural had already been defaced.

Went pay my respects to Kobe but the mural has already been defaced (?) pic.twitter.com/1lSUAzFKSb — Rashad (@0Rashad) January 31, 2020

The mural has since been fixed, according to khou.com.

Bryant was killed at age 41 in a helicopter crash Sunday in southern California, dying alongside eight others including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna.

Bryant and his daughter Gianna - aka "GiGi" leave behind his wife, Vanessa Bryant and daughters Natalia Bryant, Bianca Bryant, and Capri Kobe Bryant.

In the summer of 2003, a 19-year-old accused Bryant of raping her in a Colorado hotel room.

Bryant, then 24 years old, was arrested and admitted to having sex with the woman but said he believed the encounter was consensual.

Prosecutors dropped the case a year later, saying that the accuser wasn’t willing to testify as Bryant maintained his innocence.

A civil lawsuit was settled out of court.

The vandalism comes just days after Felicia Sonmez, a reporter at The Washington Post, was suspended following tweets about Kobe Bryant’s rape allegations following his death.

As the world was learning the news and initial details of Bryant's death, the Post's Felicia Sonmez tweeted a link to a Daily Beast story titled, "Kobe Bryant's Disturbing Rape Case: The DNA Evidence, the Accuser's Story, and the Half-Confession."

Shortly afterward, she tweeted that she had received "abuse and death threats" from "10,000 people, literally." She added that "any public figure is worth remembering in their totality."

Her tweets were later deleted.

According to the New York Times, Post executive editor Martin Baron emailed Sonmez shortly after her tweets and said, in part, "A real lack of judgment to tweet this. Please stop. You're hurting this institution by doing this."

In a statement Monday, Post managing editor Tracy Grant said Sonmez's tweets "displayed poor judgement that undermined the work of her colleagues," and cited a violation of the Post newsroom's social media policy.