A Virginia man is accused of inflicting hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage on an Iwo Jima statue near Marine Corps Base Quantico. (Prince William County Police)
A Virginia man was arrested after police said he used a sledgehammer to remove the head of a Marine depicted in an Iwo Jima statue near Marine Corps Base Quantico. The alleged attack caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the historic military monument.
Prince William County police officers responded at approximately 10:13 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, after receiving a report of vandalism at the statue near Richmond Highway and Fuller Road in Quantico, Virginia.
Police identified the suspect as Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, 27, of Stafford, Virginia. Officers allegedly found him striking the monument with a sledgehammer when they arrived.
Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano was arrested after allegedly using a sledgehammer to damage the Iwo Jima statue near Marine Corps Base Quantico. (Prince William County Police)
Authorities said Maldonado Soriano was taken into custody after officers found extensive damage to the limestone sculpture, which honors one of the most enduring images in American military history.
The statue suffered the complete removal of one Marine’s head, as well as damage to other figures shown raising the American flag during the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima, police said.
Photos of the damaged monument show that the figure on the far right is missing its head. Another Marine has deep gouges across his helmet and face, police told News Media.
A third figure’s bayonet, attached to a firearm slung across his back, was also damaged. Police estimated repairs could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The limestone statue near Marine Corps Base Quantico portrays the famous World War II flag-raising on Iwo Jima. (Prince William County Police)
Maldonado Soriano faces three charges: felony destruction of property, trespassing with intent to damage property and felony injury to a monument.
He remains held without bond. A court date has not been announced.
Authorities have not released a possible motive for the alleged vandalism and have not said whether the monument can be restored.
The damaged statue is a 9-foot limestone representation of the iconic flag-raising on Mount Suribachi during the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima.
A Marine depicted in the iconic Iwo Jima statue was decapitated in the alleged sledgehammer attack. (Prince William County Police)
Felix de Weldon sculpted the monument. He later created the much larger bronze Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.
The smaller Iwo Jima monument is located near the entrance to Marine Corps Base Quantico, close to the National Museum of the Marine Corps.
Quantico is a major Marine Corps installation in northern Virginia and has served for generations as a hub for military training and education.
In 2001, parts of the installation were added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Quantico Marine Corps Base Historic District. The district includes 122 buildings, two landscapes, a sculpture and a water tower.
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