A George Floyd mural in Houston was defaced with a racial slur

• A mural for George Floyd in Houston, Texas, was vandalized overnight on Thursday.
• The mural was defaced with a racial epithet.
• The police condemned the vandalism, and the mural's artist painted over it.

A mural of George Floyd in Houston, Texas, was vandalized, the police said.

The mural was spray-painted with a racial slur, followed by the words "lives don't matter." The mural's artist painted over the vandalism the next day, KTRK reported.

Police Chief Troy Finner said on Thursday that the mural had been vandalized by "some knucklehead" and said "I don't know what their motivation is: If it's hate, or whatever."

"Ignore people with bad hearts and bad motivation, do not give them the power," he added.

Watch him speak here:

Floyd, a Black man, was killed after then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Floyd's death kicked off months of protests against racism and police brutality around the US.

Chauvin was convicted of murder by a jury on Tuesday.

Finner said Thursday: "The verdict came in, and it was the right verdict. Some people are upset about it, some people are ecstatic about it."

"But one thing, here in Houston, we're gonna stick together. And a message to anybody who is damaging anything in our city, murals property, or whatever, is keep doing it and you will be held accountable."