Man arrested after beheading Iwo Jima statue in Virginia with sledgehammer

Prince William Co. Police Department

The Battle of Iwo Jima monument in Quantico, Virginia, has suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages after a man beheaded one of the statues Wednesday evening, police said.

Officers responding to a report of destruction of property at the Marine Corps Base Quantico around 10:31 p.m. saw the suspect “actively damaging the statue with a sledgehammer” and detained the man without incident, Prince William County Police said.

The suspect, identified as Maldonado Soriano of Stafford, Virginia, has been charged with felony destruction of property, trespass with intent to damage, and felony injury to a monument. He is being held without bond pending a court appearance.

CNN has reached out to Soriano’s attorney listed in court records for comment.

Authorities have not disclosed why Soriano vandalized the monument. CNN has reached out to Prince William County Police for more details.

The damaged monument — located about 36 miles south of Washington, DC— is a smaller replica of sculptor Felix de Weldon’s Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, and it depicts the iconic photo captured by photojournalist Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945, showing six US Marines raising an American flag on Japan’s Iwo Jima Island during World War II.

The statue was carved from limestone by De Weldon and is considered a “non-heroic-size” replica of the 60-foot bronze original in Arlington, according to Marine Corps Base Quantico.

Then on duty in the Navy, De Weldon first began working on the statue in 1945 when he first saw Rosenthal’s photo, and he completed the smaller limestone version for Quantico before the end of the year, according to the Marines . Arlington’s larger version was not completed until 1954.

威廉王子县警察局

警方称，周三晚间，一名男子砍掉了弗吉尼亚州匡蒂科硫磺岛战役纪念碑上一座雕像的头部，造成该纪念碑数十万美元的损失。

据威廉王子县警方称，晚上 10 点 31 分左右，警方接到报案称匡蒂科海军陆战队基地发生财产损毁事件，赶到现场的警员发现嫌疑人“正在用大锤破坏雕像”，并顺利拘留了该男子。

嫌疑人已被确认为弗吉尼亚州斯塔福德的马尔多纳多·索里亚诺，他被控犯有重罪，包括故意毁坏财物、非法侵入并意图破坏以及重罪损坏纪念碑。他目前被羁押，不得保释，等待出庭。

CNN已联系法庭记录中列出的索里亚诺的律师寻求置评。

当局尚未透露索里亚诺破坏纪念碑的原因。CNN已联系威廉王子县警方以获取更多详情。

这座受损的纪念碑位于华盛顿特区以南约 36 英里处，是雕塑家费利克斯·德·韦尔登在弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿创作的海军陆战队战争纪念碑的缩小版复制品。它描绘了摄影记者乔·罗森塔尔于 1945 年 2 月 23 日拍摄的标志性照片，照片显示二战期间六名美国海军陆战队员在日本硫磺岛上升起美国国旗。

据匡蒂科海军陆战队基地称，这座雕像由德·韦尔登用石灰石雕刻而成，是阿灵顿60英尺高青铜原像的“非英雄尺寸”复制品。

当时在海军服役的德·韦尔登于1945年第一次看到罗森塔尔的照片后就开始着手制作这座雕像，据海军陆战队称，他在当年年底前完成了为匡蒂科建造的较小尺寸的石灰石版本。而阿灵顿的较大版本直到1954年才完成。