Someone has thrown red paint on a statue that honors a Confederate general in Washington, D.C.

Protesters gathered about 5 p.m. at the statue for Albert Pike, which stands near D.C. police headquarters at 3rd and D streets NW. Toward the end of the protest, someone threw red paint on the statue.

U.S. Park Police are investigating the vandalism.

The statue was erected by Scottish Rite Free Masons to mark Pike's 32 years of leadership of its southern jurisdiction. One panel at the base of the statue mentions Pike's role as brigadier general of the Confederate Army during the Civil War, WTOP reports.

Demonstrators and some D.C. leaders have said Pike was a racist and supported slavery.

Friday morning, a banner was draped against the statue with the message "#ModernConfederates John Kelly. Gary Cohn. Rex Tillerson."

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said she plans to meet with the National Park Service to discuss removing the statue.

"He certainly has no claim whatsoever to be memorialized in the nation’s capital," Norton said in a statement.