A 27-year-old Stafford man is facing felony charges after Prince William County police say they caught him taking a sledgehammer to the Iwo Jima statue outside the main gate of Marine Corps Base Quantico.
Officers responded around 10:13 p.m. Wednesday after a report of property being destroyed near the base entrance. When they arrived, police say they found Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano actively damaging the statue. He was detained at the scene without incident.
Police said one of the depicted soldiers’ heads had been knocked off the sculpture. The department estimates the damage will run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair.
Maldonado Soriano has been charged with felony destruction of property, trespassing with intent to damage property, and felony injury to a monument. He is being held without bond, and a court date has not yet been set.
A landmark with a history
The statue is a Felix de Weldon sculpture based on the iconic 1945 photograph of Marines raising the flag over Iwo Jima. It sits at the main gate of Marine Corps Base Quantico, one of the first things motorists see along Route 1, and it has drawn vandals before — in 2012, someone spray-painted a pink line around its base.
Part of a wider crackdown
The case comes as federal authorities have been pursuing tougher charges against people accused of defacing war memorials. In August, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office charged a woman with two felonies over alleged vandalism of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, charges Pirro said could carry up to ten years in prison.
“Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom,” Pirro said. “We will not tolerate this kind of criminal activism, and we will ensure that anyone who desecrates a veterans’ memorial is held fully accountable.”
The administration has reinstated an executive order directing federal prosecutors to pursue anyone who damages a monument to the fullest extent of the law.
Add comment