A Virginia man has been charged after police say he used a sledgehammer on an Iwo Jima statue just outside Marine Corps Base Quantico, knocking the head off one of the Marine figures.
Prince William County police said officers responded at about 10:13 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, to the monument near Richmond Highway and Fuller Road and found a man “actively damaging the statue with a sledgehammer.”
Police identified him as Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, 27, of Stafford County. The damage is estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, police said, InsideNoVa reported.
Charges in the Iwo Jima statue attack
Maldonado Soriano is charged with felony destruction of property, felony injury to a monument and trespassing with intent to damage property. He is being held without bond, and his court date is pending, WJLA reported.
As of now Police have not released any motive yet.
A replica of a famous memorial
The statue was carved from limestone by sculptor Felix de Weldon, according to Marine Corps Base Quantico. It is a smaller replica of the 60-foot Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, which de Weldon also created.
Both works show Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The scene is based on Joe Rosenthal’s Feb. 23, 1945, photograph, one of the best-known images of the war.
The charges are allegations, and Maldonado Soriano is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.