DHS Issues Statement After Man Beheads Iwo Jima Memorial Statue with Sledgehammer Outside Quantico Base
Washington — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a statement on October 23 about an attack on the Iwo Jima Memorial outside Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia: at about 10:13 p.m. on October 21, a man wielding a sledgehammer smashed the head off one of the memorial's statues; Prince William County police arrived while he was still damaging it and arrested him at the scene. DHS released photographs of the damaged memorial and the severed statue head.
The arrested man is Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, 27, a Mexican citizen. County police booked him on charges including felony destruction of property, trespassing with intent to damage property, and felony damage to a memorial. According to DHS, Soriano was previously arrested in Stafford County in 2022 for trespassing.
DHS said Soriano illegally entered the United States in 1999, was granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in October 2014 under the Obama administration, later renewed it, and that the status has now expired. The charges remain pending in court.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said in the statement: "This hate-filled illegal alien attacked the memorial honoring our heroic Marines, smashing the head off one of the statues with a sledgehammer. He was granted DACA by the Obama administration. A criminal who so clearly hates America should not be in our country. We will not allow our great history to be torn down by illegal aliens who have no respect for our nation and our values. This criminal will soon face justice."
The memorial stands outside the main gate of Marine Corps Base Quantico. It is a limestone statue by sculptor Felix de Weldon based on the flag raising on Iwo Jima, erected there in 1954. County police estimate the damage to the memorial at several hundred thousand dollars.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 被砸断的硫磺岛纪念碑雕像头部。 Photo: U.S. Department of Homeland Security
