BENTONVILLE -- Two people have been arrested in connection with damaging the Confederate statue on the square.
Jeremy Ordaz, 41, was released from the Benton County Jail on $10,000 bond after he was arrested Sunday in connection with felony criminal mischief. Laura Hammarstrom was arrested in connection with criminal mischief.
Police Officer David Leehans was on patrol at 10:45 p.m. Sept. 22 when he saw a crowd of people gathered on the square and a man then flagged him down, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Leehans said he saw a man with a bandana over his face leave the area and Laura Hammarstrom standing on a pedestal near the statute, according to the affidavit.
Hammarstrom told Leehans she was trying to tear down the statue, according to the affidavit.
She said she works on the square and has to see the statue everyday and had been trying for five years to get it removed, according to the affidavit.
Hammarstrom and some friends were eating at a restaurant on the square and begin discussing the statue and returned to tear it down, according to the affidavit. One of the group said Hammarstrom and Ordaz were the most vocally upset, according to the affidavit.
Police were told Ordaz climbed on the statue and broke the rifle with a hammer, according to the affidavit.
A company estimated it will cost $12,000 to $16,000 to repair the statue, according to the affidavit.
Osborne said a replica cannon ball part of the monument was stolen in 2017, but whoever took it later left it under a park bench downtown. The stolen projectile replaced one taken about 2005 that was never found, county officials said.
Benton County owns the land the monument is on and has the authority to leave it or remove it.
The statue is of a generic bearded soldier, according to the 1996 National Register of Historical Places registration form for the monument.
NW News on 11/22/2019