Statue honouring Tuskegee Airman found days after it was stolen

A statue honouring one of Detroit’s World War Two heroes has been found days after it was stolen from a local park.

The 272 kilogramme bronze figure of the late Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Jefferson was snatched in the middle of the night on Tuesday.

It appeared to have been sawed off at the ankles.

Jefferson was a Tuskegee Airman, the United States military’s first African American flying unit.

He flew 18 missions in the war and was one of the first pilots in the unit to escort bombers over Europe.

Jefferson was shot down and held captive as a prisoner of war in Poland for nine months before returning home to Detroit where he worked as a school teacher.

"The history, the legacy of the Red Tails, of the Tuskegee Airmen, to his family, to those that honourably served with him and are serving today. For you to disgrace that, you are an absolute coward," said Detroit Police Deputy Chief Franklin Hayes.

Police caught the thief on Friday after using GPS to tracked down the rented truck used to transport the stolen statue.

The statue of Jefferson was unveiled in June in an area of the park where he used to fly model airplanes.

He was honoured by the city on his 100th birthday in 2021 and died the following year.