ST. LOUIS – The Scott Joplin House State Historic Site was damaged in a burglary Sunday morning.

Police said they received a call related to the incident located at 2658 Delmar at about 6:50 a.m. When they arrived, they found multiple broken windows. As officers walked around the building, the suspect, 38-year-old Kevin Daley-Bey, “began throwing large items from the second story windows.”

More officers arrived at the scene and then entered the building. Daley-Bey continued throwing items at officers.


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“Officers attempted to verbally de-escalate [Daley-Bey] and convince him to surrender peacefully as he continued damaging property and hurling items from the windows,” police said. “[Daley-Bey] eventually barricaded the staircase leading to his location. As officers attempted to move the items, [he] began throwing furniture down the stairs towards officers at the bottom of the staircase.” Daley-Bey then ran away from the scene off of the rear balcony.

Officers found a broken window at E.M. Harris construction located at 2600 Delmar just a few minutes later. Daley-Bey was found there. He damaged property while inside and barricaded himself in the conference room, according to police. At this point, officers made entry and took Daley-Bey into custody after he briefly resisted. He was “bleeding heavily from cutting himself on various glass windows he had destroyed,” police said. He was then taken to the hospital.

The incident left three officers with cuts from the broken glass.

The police said their investigation found Daley-Bey wrote “several suicide-like notes while inside” the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site.

Daley-Bey “caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage and destroyed many priceless artifacts” inside the historic site.

He has been charged with second-degree burglary and first-degree property damage. The investigation is ongoing.