Almost every day is a busy day at the National Civil Rights Museum, but things got a bit hectic at the historic site on Wednesday morning.
Police reportedly found smashed windows at the Lorraine Motel after security officers contacted them reporting a break in at 1 a.m. The windows to rooms 307 and 308 were shattered, just a few doors down from the infamous room 306 when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent his final hours before his assassination.
Officers reportedly found Dexter Anderson asleep on the bed inside room 308. The 33-year-old broke into a portion of the museum's King's Last Hour exhibit, a location rich with historical significance.
The museum recently reopened on April 5 after a $28 million, 16-month renovation. In addition to the King exhibit, it also features powerful displays of men shackled on a slave ship and a replication of the room where the U.S. Supreme Court heard the landmark 1954 case Brown v. the Board of Education.
"You know, it's unfortunate that it happened at a place like this," said the museum's director of administration Tracy Lauritzen Wright.
Fortunately, the only damage was the broken glass, which crews were able to replace.
Anderson has been charged with vandalism and criminal trespassing and is being held on a $3,000 bond. He is due in court on Thursday, May 1.