Man Charged After Sledgehammer Attack on Iwo Jima Monument Near Quantico
A 27-year-old man has been charged after police say he used a sledgehammer to damage the Iwo Jima flag-raising monument near the Quantico Marine base in Virginia. Police estimate the damage at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The monument is a smaller version of the Marine Corps War Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, outside Washington. It shows six U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi during the Second World War battle on Iwo Jima. The moment was captured in Joe Rosenthal's photograph, which won the Pulitzer Prize.
Officers were sent to the site on Wednesday, October 21, at about 10:13 PM, according to Prince William County police. They found Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, of Stafford, Virginia, still damaging the statue. A police incident report says he was swinging the sledgehammer at the time.
The attack knocked the head off one of the Marine figures. A second figure had its helmet and face chipped and gouged. The stone bayonet on the rifle carved over the back of a third figure was missing afterward.
Police arrested Maldonado Soriano and charged him with two felonies, injury to a monument and destruction of property. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of trespass with intent to damage property. Police classed the incident as felony destruction of property. He is being held without bond until his court appearance.
The charges are allegations, and he has not been tried. Under the law, he is presumed innocent unless and until a court finds otherwise.
The Quantico memorial has needed repairs before. In 2014, cracks appeared in one of the monument's hands, and the base said weathering was to blame. That year, Marine Corps Base Quantico carried out a six- to eight-week restoration to repair damage from earlier vandalism and years of weathering.
The Iwo Jima statue sits at a Marine base, and the case is now moving through the Prince William County court system. Each new charge or court date will be reported as it comes.
