Monument honoring fallen veterans vandalized in Visalia

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is from June 11, 2018

VISALIA, Calif. (KFSN) -- A monument honoring fallen veterans was vandalized outside of the Veterans Memorial Building in Visalia early Monday morning.

Susan Spear is the district manager for the Visalia Memorial District. She told Action News the statue, which cost a couple of thousand dollars, was there for about a year.

"It just really tears at my heart," Spear said. "It represents those who did not come home."

The vandal can be seen in surveillance video hopping over the chains surrounding the monument and committing the disturbing crime.

"He's just pounding and pounding it on the ground, and it is almost as if I just envisioned a soldier's head just being pounded to the ground," Spear stated.

Dennis Sirkin is one of the 80 members of the organization. He spent 27 years in the Army and served multiple tours in Vietnam. Seeing the vandalism left him feeling hurt and disrespected.

"This person is psychologically unsound; he needs to be baptized in freedom," Sirkin said. "We need to put him in the military, send him over to Iraq and Afghanistan and let him find out what freedom really is."

Visalia Police have detectives working on the case and authorities are asking anyone who may recognize the person in the video to contact the department.