ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. – A veterans’ memorial was vandalized over the weekend and police are searching for the people responsible.
Aside from being ripped from their concrete bases and busted up, two bronze statues, a globe, and a plaque were taken from the Walk of Heroes Veterans War Memorial in Black Shoals Park.
The statues are very heavy and would have been difficult to move by one person leading the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office to believe multiple suspects are involved.
Darin Riggs, a member of the board of the Walk of Heroes Veterans War Memorial, and Norman Wheeler, who helped come up with the idea for the memorial when he was commission chair two decades ago said they are heartbroken.
"A little anger, and a little disappointment, to realize that there are people in this country who have no respect for the veterans--you see it every day," Wheeler said. Wheeler and others who are working to expand the memorial park said this was not just an attack on the memorial, but also on the veterans it honors.
"This is just despicable, disgraceful and disheartening in so many ways," said Rockdale County Commission Chair Oz Nesbitt.
The memorial honored all of those who have served in the military in the last 100 years.
Wheeler and others speculate that the thieves were targeting the bronze.
“I don’t think anybody would steal it if they couldn’t sell it… to dispose of it in some way," Wheeler said.
If you have any information on this case or saw something over the weekend, you are asked to call the sheriff’s office at 770-278-8000.
To see what the memorial originally looked like, you can watch the video below:
