NY 1

Police officers installed the cameras on both sides of the mural Thursday afternoon.

The mural depicts fallen firefighter Peter Bielfeld, and is located on the side of a bodega on Thwaite Avenue near Pelham Parkway, close to where he lived.

Neighbors say Bielfeld was an upstanding man and firefighter. Even though Bielfield was off duty on September 11th, he still jumped into action to try to save lives at the World Trade Center, only to lose his own life.

"I feel honored that everybody's giving me this praise, how well I'm doing the work," said artist Eddie Gonzalez. "I wanted to do this, it's just a good feeling."

Police and firefighters contributed money to help repaint the mural.

"This is a team effort," said Victor DiPierro of the 49th Precinct Community Affairs. "It's something that we're trying to keep clean, and hopefully not have a reoccurrence of what happened with the graffiti before. And hopefully, we won't have that problem."

The mural was sprayed with silver, red and white paint a few months ago, and a NY1 viewer emailed the station about the vandalism.

Locals say that are glad that the mural was restored.

"I am so happy that this is being redone again. It sends a message out into the community that we have to respect authority and we have to honor it," said a resident.

"I hope that they keep it, you know, they have more respect for him, because he was a good man, good fireman" said another. "And I believe that they should keep this neat and clean."

One suspect, 17-year-old Avery Prince, was arrested last month and was charged with criminal mischief, making graffiti, and possession of graffiti instruments and has already apologized for the act.

Prince approached Gonzalez Thursday to ask whether he could help to repaint the mural. Gonzalez turned down his offer, saying he did not think it was appropriate.

The mural looks exactly like a second mural painted in tribute to Bielfeld near his firehouse, Ladder 42, Engine 73.