Couple Paints Over Huge BLM Mural in California, Police Investigating

Here's what TMZ had to report (ignore the negative-Trump spin if you can):

A pair of Trump supporters quickly ruined the work of residents in a Bay Area town that got the OK to paint a Black Lives Matter mural -- and now, cops would like a word.

This went down Saturday in the city of Martinez, CA -- where a large mural reading "BLM" was stenciled and filled in with paint by the people there in front of their local courthouse -- something city officials approved and even advertised as a community-led holiday event.

The painting of the mural was scheduled from 9 AM to 3 PM, but not too long after folks there finished up the job ... these two boneheads rolled up and did a paint job of their own.

The woman here -- who appeared to be rocking a MAGA-themed shirt -- started applying black paint over the letters with a roller ... she began with the B and then moved on to the L in a sloppy rush -- as people around them started to film and get in their face about it.

She had a man with her who was definitely wearing Trump 2020 gear -- and he was standing by and filming the encounter himself, getting into shouting matches with bystanders and telling them they were brainwashed, and that racism was a liberal hoax. Seriously ...

The witnesses got footage of their truck as well as their license plate. Eventually, the couple scrammed before they could finish their defacement ... things were getting heated.

Now, Martinez Police says they're looking for these two and plan to arrest them for defacing the mural ... which, again, was a city-sanctioned thing. Sounds like they might be facing a simple vandalism charge -- the cops were hesitant to call this a hate crime quite yet.

The "mural" has reportedly already been restored:

Local NBC Bay Area says the couple is now under investigation:

A confrontation ensued in Martinez, California, Saturday after a couple of people decided to paint over a Black Lives Matter mural in front of the county courthouse.

Despite the city giving permission to activists to paint the message, a man and a woman showed up hours later and began painting over the letters of the mural with black paint.

In a video, the pair are seen arguing with activists and shouting saying that all lives matter and police killings are a consequence of resisting arrest.

"I can't believe that this is happening right in front of my face," a witness said. "I expected something to happen, but when I saw this, I got a little excited and tried to make sure and get it in and film everything that happened."

Activists were able to record the license plate number of the truck the woman and man were driving, and the Martinez Police Department is currently investigating the situation.

And from local ABC7:

A Black Lives Matter mural was defaced in Martinez Saturday and now police are investigating.

According to Martinez police, residents obtained a permit to paint the phrase on Court Street outside the Contra Costa County courthouse.

Just an hour after the mural was completed, another group came and painted over the Black Lives Matter phrase.

One of the artists tells ABC7 News, the mural is a direct response to white power fliers that were found in Martinez earlier this week.

The artist said as the other group covered up the mural with black paint, they were shouting "all lives matter."

"I think that this is an indication of how much power white supremacy actually has," said Tatiana Ray, a Martinez resident. "The fact that even having something on the street for one hour, they couldn't even tolerate that. You know, it was such a threat to have anybody else's concerns represented by the city and represented by the community."

Ray and several others were able to fix the mural.

Police said in a statement Sunday that a white female painted over the mural as a white man made comments "to a group of onlookers."

"It appeared that the couple came to the mural with cans of paint and a roller with the specific purpose of vandalizing over the mural," the Martinez Police Department said. "The community spent a considerable amount of time painting this mural only to have the suspects destroy it by dumping and rolling paint over part of the message."

Once police were notified of what happened, the suspects were gone, the department said.

Police describe the suspects' car as a Nissan pickup truck with the word "NICOLE" on the right side in silver lettering.