Reward Being Offered For Help Catching Vandalizers Of St. Peter's Italian Catholic Church

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) -  Two days after St. Peter's Italian Catholic Church was found vandalized, a support group is offering a $10,000 reward.

The group named, "Hands off Christopher Columbus," is staking the reward. The group is looking for any leads in finding who vandalized the church, which is located at 1039 N. Broadway in Downtown LA.

St. Peter's was found marred with splotches of red paint and spray paint on Monday with signs representing anti-colonialism.

There were messages found spray-painted outside the church and on the front façade, including one that read, "land back." The vandalism is apparently in protest of Christopher Columbus and the European colonization of the Americas.

A banner was also found, it said, "stop colonizing our land."

"This is total desecration to the church of St. Peter's, who has served the Los Angeles community since 1906," Raul Montes Jr. said. "We are here because this is another hate crime against Christopher Columbus."

LAPD is investigating the vandalism as a hate crime. It remains unclear if anyone took responsibility of the action or if there are any suspects.

Monday has historically been celebrated as Columbus Day but in Los Angeles it is observed as Indigenous People's Day. The holiday was established to mark Italian explorer Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Americas, but in recent years, activists and historians have argued against celebrating his legacy because it intended to find a new route to India, and brought diseases to the continent that wiped out native Americans, who also had their land stolen by violence.