( CNN ) A hooded angel with black wings appeared on Tuesday near the spot where Walter Scott was shot and killed by a police officer in North Charleston , South Carolina , on Saturday . Since then , it 's been taken up as an icon of the Black Lives Matter movement . When protesters held the winged figure at a Wednesday morning rally outside North Charleston 's City Hall , the artwork was widely photographed . Creator Phillip Hyman grew up in the neighborhood where Scott , an unarmed black man , was shot in the back several times by a white police officer on Saturday . Hyman now lives in another part of the city and could n't stop thinking about it . He woke up about 3 a.m. a couple of days after Scott was killed and began searching for materials . `` Art is really about that moment . I just could n't take it any longer , '' he said . Hyman dug into the trash and found a piece of wood that was the perfect size . Then he picked up a can of black house paint and started making the reclaimed wood into a work of art . The 56-year-old said he crafted the artwork as a way of mourning with the family . `` That 's who all this should really be about , not about the propaganda and making it your own story , '' said Hyman , who talks quickly and passionately about his subject material . `` Shooting him in the back and just the indignity of it all . '' The figure , painted black in mourning for the family , has wings because it 's going to heaven , Hyman said . The man depicted in Hyman 's piece is dressed in a hooded sweatsuit , though that 's not what Scott was wearing when he was killed . Hyman said he prefers not to say too much about who the black angel figure is . People can look at the art and make their own interpretations , he said . `` It 's a statement of where we are in America today . It 's relevant in Charleston , Ferguson , Florida , anywhere now . '' After Hyman put the piece up on Tuesday near where Scott was killed , he got a call from a local protester with the Black Lives Matter movement , which has staged protests around the country in the wake of high-profile deaths at the hands of police . The group asked for permission to use his artwork in its demonstrations at the North Charleston City Hall . Hyman was happy to oblige . Each day , the protesters call Hyman and he either carries the angel-winged artwork to the protest , or the protesters come over to his home to pick it up . `` It 's taken a life of its own , so I 'm letting it do what it 's supposed to do now , '' he said . Freelance photographer Joel Woodhall spotted the artwork and wondered where it came from . Woodhall , who lives in nearby Charleston , said the artwork made him feel sorrow for a life ended too soon . `` It was very emotionally moving . It 's beautiful , '' he told CNN . This is n't the first time Hyman has used artwork to effect change : He restored a local theater to its former glory . He commemorated Martin Luther King Jr. 's birthday by painting a mural in a bad neighborhood that needed light . Hyman 's wife , Kay , says her husband always paints from the heart . `` To see this recognized , he just goes into tears because it 's very special to him . ''
The # ##fire shooting inspired a local artist to create murals . he has crafted the angel - winged artwork in the background of the mural . Protesters from the Black ##light Matter movement have started using it as his symbol .