A pair of vandals launched an attack on Washington Square Park’s famed arch early Monday — tossing balloons filled with red paint at its two statues dedicated to George Washington.
The two suspects — a woman dressed in all white with a white bow in her hair and a man in a black shirt and black shorts — fled on Citi Bikes, law enforcement sources said, noting there was surveillance video of the 3:20 a.m. incident.
The early 20th-century statues — one of Washington as the nation’s first president and another depicting him as general of the country’s Revolutionary War forces — bled red as they dripped with the still-fresh paint just before 8 a.m.
Remnants of the red paint-filled balloons that were tossed at them and the back side of the arch were left at the scene in Greenwich Village in Manhattan.
Also left behind was the blue plastic cooler with wheels that the suspects used to tote the balloons. It still had red paint in it when cops found it.
The vandals also used white spray paint to draw the outlines of 24 people’s bodies around the park’s fountain — then tossed red balloons at their bodies, mainly their heads, making it appear as if they’d been shot.
“Washington has blood on his hands. I’m in favor of them defacing!” local Dr. Iven Young, 86, told The Post of the damage at the park.
Washington has garnered controversy because while he helped found the country, he also owned slaves and was responsible for the deaths of Native Americans. Amid recent massive protests over inequality, especially following the police-brutality death of George Floyd in Minnesota, such statues of prominent early Americans have been defaced and torn down across the US.
But Steve Romano, 61, also a doctor who lives in the neighborhood, said he opposed the vandalism.
“I feel like the city is letting things go, passively. It’s horrible,’’ he said. “It’s getting out of hand. I do not support defacing our monuments. It’s very frustrating.’’
Cops from the Sixth Precinct took away the cooler and other evidence left at the scene to test for things such as fingerprints.
Meanwhile, city Parks Department workers vigorously scrubbed the arch to get off the paint.
“This does do damage — you can see bits of the statue all over me,’’ a worker told The Post just before making his third pass at cleaning part of the marble structure with a citrus-based solution and powerwasher.
“It’s marble — it comes off,’’ he said.
Last week, a man painted “slave owner” on a statue of Washington in Union Square Park in Manhattan.
