Charly Haley

chaley@dmreg.com

A man with a hammer damaged nearly 30 sculptures in the Robert D. Ray Asian Gardens in downtown Des Moines Tuesday evening.

Police used a Taser on the 48-year-old man because he refused to drop the hammer when asked, according to a Des Moines police report. Officers then arrested him and sent him to a hospital for medical evaluation, with pending criminal charges.

A police officer counted 27 pillar sculptures and two lion sculptures damaged, estimating the cost of the damage at $14,500.

The suspect, identified as Dung Van Nguyen, 48, of Des Moines was immediately transported to a hospital for evaluation, with pending charges of criminal mischief and interference with official acts. At 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, Nguyen was booked into the Polk County Jail with on those charges. His bond was set at $10,300, according to jail records.

Kevin and Mollie Cooney happened to be bicycling by the gardens, along the Des Moines River and Robert D. Ray Drive, shortly before 5 p.m. when they saw Nguyen with the hammer. At first, they thought he may have been repairing the sculptures, but when they got closer, they realized he was breaking them. Two other women who had been walking nearby had already called 911, Kevin Cooney, a former KCCI-TV anchor, told the Register on Wednesday morning.

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"It was obvious he was just there to destroy something," Cooney said.

While waiting for police to arrive, Kevin Cooney walked down to the gardens' pavilion and tried to talk to Nguyen as he continued to hammer at the sculptures. Cooney used his cellphone to film his interactions with Nguyen, which aired on KCCI hours later. Cooney's wife, Mollie Cooney, is an anchor at the TV station.

Kevin Cooney repeatedly asked Nguyen to stop.

"I pleaded with him. I tried to reason with him," Cooney told the Register.

Nguyen hardly responded and continued hammering the sculptures.

Cooney's video shows him walking close to Nguyen.

"I really didn't feel threatened," Cooney said. "The guy was destroying property, he's not hurting anyone. ... I was trying to stop him. This was sad."

When two police officers arrived, they repeatedly told Nguyen to put down the hammer, the police report and Cooney's video show.

The suspect spoke to the officers in a foreign language, which was later identified as Vietnamese, but in English Nguyen told the officers "not good" while pointing at a sculpture, and then "not good" while pointing at the officers, according to the report. The police officers were unable to immediately reach a Vietnamese translator, so they couldn't interview Nguyen on scene, according to the report.

While still holding the hammer, Nguyen took two steps toward the officers, and then one of the officers deployed his Taser, which caused Nguyen to fall onto his back, according to the police report. Cooney's video shows Nguyen clearly in pain, from the Taser, as officers handcuff him.

Des Moines police spokesman Sgt. Ryan Doty said the officer's use of a Taser will be reviewed internally at the police department, which is standard procedure for all Taser deployments, to verify that the use of force was justified.

It's not unusual for police officers to use Tasers in situations like this, Doty said. "I can't really say how often that happens, but it does happen," he said.

"It is (because of) instances just as this that the Tasers are carried by the officer," Doty said. "Consider what a hammer could do to a person if you were struck by one. It could do serious and irreparable damage, which is why going hands on would not be a force option."

The Robert D. Ray Asian Gardens had its grand opening in 2009. The gardens are named for former Iowa Gov. Robert D. Ray, who led the state in welcoming Southeast Asian refugees in the 1970s.

The Riverfront Development Authority, which oversees the gardens, said in a statement Wednesday that it is "assessing the damage and will be developing options to restore the damaged sculptures."

Paul Shao, of the Iowa-based Chinese Cultural Center of America and an Iowa State University professor, was instrumental in designing the gardens. In an email Wednesday, he said he was saddened to hear about the damaged sculptures and hopes they can be repaired.

"I am greatly saddened by the latest vandalism news," he said. "Hate begets more hate."

How to help: The Iowa Asian Alliance is collecting donations to fund restoration of the gardens.