A man was arrested after swinging a hammer at the Iwo Jima statue in Quantico, Virginia, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, police say.
Prince William County police said they found Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, 27, vandalizing the statue with the hammer after 10 p.m. Wednesday.
The statue was badly damaged and Maldonado Soriano removed the head of one of the Marines from the statue, police said.
Officers arrested Maldonado Soriano, a native of Stafford County. He was charged with destruction of property, trespassing with intent to damage property and injury to a monument.
He is being held without bail. Police have not released any information on a potential motive for the vandalism.
Dr. Felix Weihs of Weldon carved the nine-foot limestone statue that stands today at Marine Corps Base Quantico over a nine-year period in the late 1940s and early 1950s after seeing the dramatic photograph of the event taken by photographer Joe Rosenthal. de Weldon also sculpted the Marine Corps War Memorial in DC
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