Vandals Torch Life-Sized Statue of Ronald Reagan at Ronald Reagan Sports Park in California

Park renamed in 2004, statue put up last year

Vandals torched a bronze, life-size statue of Ronald Reagan in an apparent arson fire in a Southern California sports park named after the 40th president, The Press-Enterprise reported.

The 1-year-old statue was set ablaze at the Ronald Reagan Sports Park in Temecula, Calif.—a park Reagan praised in the early 1980s because it was built through volunteerism and fundraising and not through government handouts. The statue shows the former president in casual clothing, holding a shovel in one hand and a cowboy hat in another. The suspected arson was discovered around 7 a.m. Friday by a park worker.