Arkansas Ten Commandments monument destroyed by man who may have smashed similar Oklahoma structure

He claimed psychotic breaks after ramming his car into the Oklahoma monument in 2015

The driver allegedly smashed a similar monument in Oklahoma two years ago (AP)

A monument of the Ten Commandments has been destroyed in Arkansas, allegedly by a man who crashed his car into a similar monument two years ago.

Less than 24 hours after the privately funded monument was installed, 32-year-old Michael Reed is said to have crashed his car into the shiny black installation on the capitol grounds in Little Rock. The six-foot-tall stone erection smashed to the ground, breaking into pieces on a sidewalk.

Arkansas officials haven’t yet released a suspected motive for Mr Reed’s actions, however he claimed having psychotic breaks after destroying a similar monument in Oklahoma.

Mr Reed wrote in a 2015 letter to the Tulsa World that he had psychotic episodes that led him to destroy the Oklahoma monument. He said then that a Dracula movie had given him inspiration, that he believed Michael Jackson’s spirit was in mean, that he believed he was the incarnation of an occult leader, and that he had attempted to contact Lucifer’s high priestess — whom he said was named Gwyneth Paltrow. He had also threatened the life of former President Barack Obama.

He noted in the letter that he planned on getting psychiatric help, which was a condition of his release.

The 6,000 pound monument was installed with little fanfare in Little Rock this week, and with no prior notice to the public. Approval for installing it on the state grounds had been in the works since at least 2015 when a law was passed that required the state to allow it to be displayed near the Capitol. A state panel approved its design and location last month.

“We have a beautiful Capitol grounds but we did not have a monument that actually honoured the historical, moral foundation of law”, State Senator Jason Rapert, a Republican who sponsored the measure to require approval for the monument, said.

Mr Rapert quickly began raising funds to replace the monument after its demolition, and the group that raised the money for the original installation said they've already ordered another.

Mr Reed may have jumped the gun in destroying the monument, however. The American Civil Liberties Union has said that it plans on challenging the display in court, saying that a Ten Commandments statue is a violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of the separation of church and state. They did not indicate that they had a planned timeline.

“Whatever they may say, the defenders of the Ten Commandments monument, the fact is the text of the Ten Commandments cannot be separated from its religious significance as the text calls individuals to adhere to moral precepts and uniquely religious obligations”, Rita Sklar, the executive director of the ACLU in Arkansas, said.

Arkansas’ Ten Commandments statue is one of several attempts by groups around the country to erect the monuments. A display on the Texas capitol grounds was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2005, a ruling that led to the Oklahoma installation, as well as two in Kentucky.

As in Oklahoma, the Satanic Temple has pushed to instal a competing monument to Baphomet, a goat-headed, angel-winged creature that is accompanied by two children smiling at it. Those efforts have been blocked in Arkansas by a law that requires that the state legislature approve monuments before proposals can be considered by a state commission.