A Virginia man was arrested Wednesday after allegedly using a sledgehammer to decapitate the figure of Marine Corps Cpl. Harlon Block on an Iwo Jima sculpture near Marine Corps Base Quantico. Police said the historic military monument sustained hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.

Officers with the Prince William County Police Department responded at roughly 10:13 p.m. after receiving calls about property destruction near the Virginia installation. The alleged vandalism targeted a sculpture honoring one of the most recognizable moments involving United States Marines during World War II.

Police arrested Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, 27, at the scene. He was charged with felony destruction of property, trespass with intent to damage property, and felony injury to a monument, according to the department.

Maldonado Soriano is being held without bond while awaiting a court appearance. The source did not provide a date for that appearance or additional information about the circumstances leading up to the alleged destruction.

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The most severe damage described by authorities involved the statue depicting Block, whose head was allegedly knocked off with a sledgehammer. Police placed the resulting damage to the monument in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, though no exact figure was provided.

Image Credit: Prince William County Police Department

Damage was not limited to the Block figure, according to details reported by The Washington Post. A second Marine depicted in the sculpture is missing the bayonet from the rifle slung across his back.

A third figure also sustained visible damage. That Marine’s helmet and face had been “chipped and gouged,” adding to the destruction found across the military sculpture.

The monument was created to honor Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal’s iconic image of United States Marines raising the American flag over Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Rosenthal captured the photograph on Feb. 23, 1945.

Felix de Weldon, an American sculptor who was born in Austria, was serving with the United States Navy when he saw the image. Moved by the photograph, de Weldon immediately constructed a scale model depicting the flag raising.

De Weldon then spent another nine and a half years completing the full scale model that now stands in Arlington, Virginia. The smaller sculpture allegedly damaged by Maldonado Soriano is located near the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

The Quantico sculpture depicts the Marines associated with the famous flag raising image, making the alleged removal of Block’s head particularly conspicuous. Police also documented damage affecting weapons equipment and the physical features of other figures in the monument.

Authorities have accused Maldonado Soriano of three offenses, including two felony counts connected to the destruction and injury of property. The trespass charge specifically alleges that he entered the property with the intent to cause damage.

The Prince William County Police Department identified the suspected tool as a sledgehammer. Officers responding to the destruction calls found and arrested Maldonado Soriano at the location, according to the department’s account.

The case now moves toward a court appearance while Maldonado Soriano remains in custody without bond. Meanwhile, the damaged sculpture near the National Museum of the Marine Corps bears the scars of an alleged attack that police say caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in harm.

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