Police say a 27-year-old Stafford man, Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, was caught on Wednesday night swinging a sledgehammer at the Iwo Jima statue near the main gate of Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. Officers responding to the intersection of Richmond Highway and Fuller Road at about 10:13 p.m. found him actively damaging the monument and quickly detained him. The head of one of the Marine figures was knocked off and found on the ground, and police estimate the damage at hundreds of thousands of dollars. He is charged with felony destruction of property, trespass with intent to damage property and felony injury to a monument, and he is being held without bond while his court date is pending.

The limestone statue was sculpted by Felix de Weldon, the same artist behind the famous Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, and it depicts the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima in World War II. De Weldon finished this smaller version before the end of 1945, while the larger Arlington memorial was not completed until 1954. Police have not released a motive, and it is still unclear why the statue was targeted. Some outlets, citing unnamed federal sources, report that he is a Mexican national whose DACA protection expired this year, but police statements have not confirmed that, and no verified link has been made between his status and the damage. The charges are allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless convicted, so the big questions now are what led him to the statue and how the repairs will be handled.