OKLAHOMA CITY - UPDATE: Man who literally broke the Ten commandments charged with felonies

A man says Satan told him to plow his car into the Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol building.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol has identified the man as Michael Tate Reed Jr., 29, of Roland, Okla. Reed has been taken to an Oklahoma County mental facility for an emergency order of detention and mental evaluation.

Around 7 p.m. Thursday, troopers with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol responded to a vehicle that crashed into the statue.  The driver was nowhere to be found, said OHP spokesman Capt. George Brown.

Someone wrecked into the 10 Commandments statue at the OKC State Capitol. pic.twitter.com/qpNltRIo75

— Maxx Crawford (@woodenwarship) October 24, 2014

Brown said investigators would process the scene and the abandoned vehicle in hopes of locating the suspect, but investigators didn't have to look far.

Early Friday morning, Reed was taken into custody at the Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City after allegedly making threats against the president and the government.  In an interview with two Secret Service agents, he said Satan told him to urinate on the Ten Commandments, then crash his car into the monument.

At that time, the agents had no knowledge about the incident at the Capitol building but confirmed the man's story with security.

Workers remove the broken remains of the 10 Commandments monument @ the Capitol...It was knocked, broken overnight pic.twitter.com/IQ9evLzfrJ

— Shawn Ashley (@eCapitol_Shawn) October 24, 2014

When speaking with the agents, Reed said he was bipolar and had been off his medication for some time.  He was turned over to the OHP, which transported him to an Oklahoma County mental facility for evaluation. 

The district attorney's office is expected to determine criminal charges next week.

The statue, which was privately funded by Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow, was the center of a lawsuit by the ACLU.  In September, an Oklahoma County judge dismissed the suit, which sought the statue's removal and claimed the monument violated the state constitution's ban against using public property to support a religion.  The judge disagreed, ruling the monument can stay.

The ACLU released a statement Friday, calling the vandalism outrageous:

The ACLU of Oklahoma and our clients are outraged at this apparent act of vandalism. While we have and continue to seek the removal of the Ten Commandments monument from the Capitol grounds through the judicial process, the Ten Commandments constitute a strong foundation in our clients’ deeply held religious beliefs. To see the Ten Commandments desecrated by vandals is highly offensive to them as people of faith. Our Oklahoma and Federal Constitutions seek to create a society in which people of all faiths and those of no faith at all can coexist as equals without fear of repressions from the government or their neighbors. Whether it is politicians using religion as a political tool or vandals desecrating religious symbols, neither are living up to the full promise of our founding documents.

Ryan Kiesel
Oklahoma Executive Director, ACLU

Governor Mary Fallin has already promised to help Ritze raise funds to restore the monument.  The governor said it's appalling anything would be vandalized at the Capitol, "much less a monument of such significance."

"Our monument will be rebuilt and restored,” said Fallin. “The people of Oklahoma will not stand for acts of violence against the Capitol or its monuments.”

Ritze released the following statement:

While I am appalled that someone would go to such lengths to do violence to our Ten Commandments monument, I am not at all shocked. I am dismayed but not discouraged by this act of violence against the monument. This monument represents the values that an overwhelming majority of Oklahomans hold close. We are not going to be bullied; the monument will be repaired and replaced. I trust our law enforcement agencies will quickly apprehend the person or persons responsible for this crime, and those people will be held accountable.

Photos courtesy of KFOR.com in Oklahoma City.