An Atlanta man connected to the vandalizing of a bronze statue of Tupac Shakur at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Georgia last month, has been slapped with a felony charge.

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,  43-year-old Kenneth Anthony Wilson was charged Thursday (November 1) with second-degree criminal damage to property, a felony.

He  is currently being held at the DeKalb County jail under a $1,500 bond.

A press release issued by the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center after the vandalism occurred , claimed that a noose was hung around the neck of Tupac’s statue and was 'plastered with handbills of garbled rants about 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, rappers and various record companies'.

The release also said that police were investigating the incident as a hate crime.

Atlanta police would dismiss the center’s claims saying no noose was found and they were not looking into the incident as a hate crime.

The cops said when they were called to the center, the Tupac statue had underwear on it's head, an orange string with a cross around its neck and stickers placed over it and  nearby walls.

A spokeswoman for the Atlanta police said Thursday that they have no reason to believe  Wilson had a racial motive. Wilson is African-American and he lives minutes away from the center.