BOSTON (WHDH) - Police are investigating after Boston’s Puerto Rican Veterans Memorial was vandalized on Sunday, an act city officials decried as “cowardly.”
Officers responding to reports of vandalism at the monument, located at 1440 Washington St., around 11:30 a.m. found two pillars had been knocked over and the Puerto Rican flag had been lowered until it touched the ground, police said.
Tony Molina, Vietnam veteran, Purple Heart recipient and president of the Puerto Rican Veterans Memorial, says the damage was deliberate.
“You get sick, you know, when you think of people who would do that to a veterans memorial,” he said. “They have no decency whatsoever.”
Multiple city departments responded to clean up the damage.
In a statement, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said, “Our veterans are heroes that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. I’m disgusted by the act of vandalism at the Puerto Rican Veterans Memorial.”
City Councilor Ed Flynn added, “It’s very cowardly for anyone to even consider to do something like this.”
Molina says whoever did this failed to stop Monday’s Memorial Day ceremony.
He continued that the city will be honoring veterans at the Puerto Rican monument and invites the vandals to come.
“I would love to sit with them and remember some of the things that happened in Vietnam,” Molina said.
The ceremony begins at noon.
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