ST. LOUIS — A man was taken into custody after police said he broke into construction equipment and damaged a statue Tuesday night outside the Cathedral Basilica.
Christopher Jaros, 35, was charged by the Circuit Attorney with two counts of first-degree property damage, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, and one count each of first-degree tampering, resisting arrest and institutional vandalism.
According to a post from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the Angel of Harmony statue was knocked off its base by a boom lift.
Officers were called to the Cathedral Basilica at about 8 p.m., where they found the statue damaged and an unoccupied vehicle with a bullet hole. After reviewing the security video, they identified a suspect and began searching for him.
Police said officers spotted the man in the Central West End, but he ran off. The post said officers surrounded the area and used a police dog to track the suspect down near the intersection of Euclid and Maryland avenues.
The 35-year-old man was taken into custody. Police said they also believe the man was the one who fired the shot at an unoccupied car.
Security video from the intersection showed a shirtless man evading multiple officers before tripping and falling to the ground. The officers then surrounded him and took him into custody.
Archbishop of St. Louis Mitchell Rozanski provided the following statement:
“The Angel of Harmony has graced the grounds of our city’s Cathedral Basilica since 1999, as a joyful reminder that our diversity is something to be celebrated, that truth, beauty and goodness unite us all. We need to be reminded of that daily. We are still learning about the extent of the damage, with great hope that this special sculpture can be restored."
5 On Your Side met a repairman who had come out to evaluate the damage Wednesday morning. The man said the stainless steel mounts were shredded and there's extensive structural damage.
In 1999, 5 On Your Side interviewed the artist Wiktor Szostalo as he wrapped up work on the Angel of Harmony. "A majority of the surfaces will stay as I leave them on the day of the installation for the next 5-thousand years or whatever it's guaranteed," Szostalo said in the 1999 interview, "Like the arch, it's stainless steel it's not changing."
Like the Gateway Arch, Szostalo's Angel of Harmony would have remained unharmed if it hadn't been for the boom lift run-in.