Man Accused of Beheading Iwo Jima Statue at Marine Corps Base Quantico

A man took a sledgehammer to the Iwo Jima statue at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on Wednesday night and knocked the head off one of the six Marine figures, Prince William County police said. The damage is estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Officers responding to a report of destruction of property at about 10:13 p.m. on October 21 found a man actively striking the limestone sculpture near Richmond Highway and Fuller Road and detained him without incident, police said.

Police identified the suspect as Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, 27, of Stafford, Virginia. He is charged with felony destruction of property, trespass with intent to damage, and felony injury to a monument, court records show. He is being held without bond ahead of a court appearance on Friday afternoon. CNN said it had reached out to the attorney listed in court records for Maldonado Soriano for comment.

The damage and the motive

The blows removed the head of one figure and damaged other parts of the flag-raising group, according to police. Reporting by the New York Post and Military.com identified the beheaded figure as the one depicting Marine Corporal Harlon Block, one of the six flag raisers in the photograph the statue copies. Police said there is currently no timeline for repairs.

His motive remains unclear. Sergeant Erin Noble of the Prince William County police told CNN that the accused has given multiple, conflicting reasons for damaging the monument.

The statue

The Quantico statue is a smaller limestone replica of sculptor Felix de Weldon's Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. It depicts the photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945, showing six United States Marines raising an American flag on Iwo Jima in Japan during World War II. The monument stands about 36 miles south of Washington, D.C., near the entrance to the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

De Weldon, who was serving in the Navy at the time, began work on the statue in 1945 after seeing Rosenthal's photograph, and he finished the smaller limestone version for Quantico before the end of that year, according to the Marine Corps. The larger bronze version in Arlington was not completed until 1954.

Immigration status becomes part of the case

On Friday, the New York Post reported, citing an administration official and a second source familiar with his legal status, that Maldonado Soriano is a migrant from Mexico who entered the United States illegally as a child in 1999, was allowed to remain under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2014, and had that status extended in 2024 before it was stripped during President Donald Trump's second term. Military.com reported that his protection from deportation ended in August.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told the Post that Maldonado Soriano "disrespected our brave service members and defaced a beautiful monument that honored their sacrifice."

Maldonado Soriano is due in court on Friday afternoon in Prince William County. Police have not announced a repair plan, and the monument remains damaged while the charges are pending.