Prince William County police arrested a 27-year-old Stafford man late Wednesday night after officers found him actively damaging the Iwo Jima statue near Richmond Highway and Fuller Road outside Marine Corps Base Quantico with a sledgehammer.
Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano faces charges of felony destruction of property, trespass with intent to damage property, and felony injury to a monument. Police estimate the damage, which included the removal of one of the depicted Marines’ heads, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. He is being held without bond.
The statue is a limestone sculpture by Felix de Weldon based on Joe Rosenthal’s 1945 photograph of Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi. It has stood for decades outside the main gate as a welcome marker for the base.
Multiple federal sources told Fox News that Soriano is a Mexican national and former DACA recipient. He crossed the southern border in December 1999 as a child, received DACA status under the Obama administration in 2014, had it extended by the Biden administration in 2024, and lost that status in August 2026 when it was not renewed.
This is not the first incident at the same location. In May 2024, two men in a box truck attempted to force their way through the Fuller Road gate, claiming to be Amazon contractors making a delivery to the post office inside Quantico Town.
Sources told Potomac Local News that one was a Jordanian foreign national who had recently crossed the southern border and that one of the occupants was on the terrorist watch list. They were turned over to ICE. No one was injured.
Virginia’s members of Congress, including those whose districts include or border Quantico, have not publicly commented on the latest attack as of Thursday evening.
The case remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Prince William County Police Department tip line.
SOURCES:
Fox News reporting, citing federal sources
