{"id":881535,"date":"2026-06-20T23:44:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T23:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/881535\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T23:44:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T23:44:42","slug":"american-olympic-canoeist-david-hearn-arrested-for-allegedly-vandalizing-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/881535\/","title":{"rendered":"American Olympic canoeist David Hearn arrested for allegedly vandalizing Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former US Olympian was arrested for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool<\/a> in Washington DC.<\/p>\n

David Hearn, a three-time Olympic canoeist, was cycling past the monument on Friday when he said he stopped and noticed a piece of the pool\u2019s liner floating in the water.<\/p>\n

Hearn, 67, claimed to the Washington Post he reached out and touched the detached piece and was quickly taken into custody by Park Police at the beleaguered monument.<\/p>\n

Former US Olympian David Hearn was arrested for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington DC. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Video of the incident<\/a> went viral, with Hearn shown looking bewildered as he\u2019s confronted by members of the National Guard and then put in cuffs by US Park Police.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t vandalize anything,\u201d Hearn told The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reached in there, and I was able to grab the end of that flapping piece, the already peeling piece. It was still attached to the bottom. I didn\u2019t remove anything,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

The Bethesda, Maryland, man was drawn to check out the Reflecting Pool because of its newly installed \u201cAmerican flag blue\u201d liner, which has been deteriorating amidst an algae bloom.<\/p>\n

Hearn competed in the Whitewater Slalom Canoe in the Summer Olympics in 1992, 1996, and 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t vandalize anything,\u201d Hearn told The Washington Post. REUTERS<\/p>\n

He also won Gold at two World Championships in 1985 and 1995 and came away with silver medals five times.<\/p>\n

In 1995, Hearn was honored as USA Canoe Kayak Male Athlete of the Year.<\/p>\n

He was detained for almost five hours at a Park Police facility in Hains Point, according to the Washington Post.<\/p>\n

He is scheduled to appear in DC Superior Court on July 9 to face a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property.<\/p>\n

President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0on Friday claimed vandals damaged the recently renovated reflecting pool near the Lincoln Memorial, adding that authorities are investigating the incident. REUTERS<\/p>\n

US Park Police did not respond to request for comment.<\/p>\n

President Trump posted about the arrest on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States Park Police have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Poll,\u201d he wrote.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWho would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair. President DJT.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump pointed the finger at vandals Friday for the current dismal state<\/a> of the Reflecting Pool, just weeks after a $14.8 million restoration project was completed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool, which sits between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside the Pool, they\u2019ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo different than the chemicals that were used on the National Mall, they used something similar in the Reflecting Pool to try to destroy and demean our beautiful work,\u201d the president claimed.<\/p>\n

Trump further claimed the vandalized area would be restored<\/a>, and the algae resolved, by \u201cearly next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former US Olympian was arrested for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington DC. David…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":881536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,11307,69,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,41508,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,1130,13594],"class_list":["post-881535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-arrests","tag-donald-trump","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-summer-olympics","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa","tag-vandalism","tag-washington-dc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116785097402112323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}