MILWAUKEE — While driving north on Holton, you can see the Breonna Taylor mural as you cross Locust.
Ihsan Atta owns the building the mural hangs on. He did not paint it, but during the Black Lives Matter Movement, he reached out to an artist to paint something in the space. That turned into the mural that is there now.
“It was something that was beautiful to me," Atta said about the mural and it's impact on the community. “There’s constantly people coming putting flowers, putting plants, taking pictures, and sometimes just meditating here."
But Atta tells TMJ4 that it's time for the mural to come down.
"I don't want it to come down, it's nice right there," said Eric Jefferson, a life long Milwaukee resident.
Jefferson was walking down Holton with Violet Young when TMJ4 Reporter Brendyn Jones told them the mural was coming down.
"It's important to know that we do matter," Young told TMJ4.
For Atta, he says he wants a new mural to show support for the nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza Who've been displaced by war.
Al Jazeerareports at least 36,000 Palestinians have been killed since the October 7 attack on Israel. 15,000 of them being children.
"It's been especially difficult and frustrating because our tax dollars are going to fund this Genocide," Atta, who is Palestinian, told TMJ4.
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu refutes the claims of genocide.
Atta says he doesn't have an exact timeline of when the mural will come down.
Atta doesn't just want the mural to be put in storage though. He wants it to continue to be displayed, either in the Riverwest Neighborhood, or possibly with a family member of Breonna Taylor.
If you know a good place for the mural, reach out to TMJ4.
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