A corrections officer has been freed after being held hostage by detainees for approximately three hours this morning at the City Justice Center in downtown St. Louis.
The tense situation at the city jail began at 6 a.m. at the facility on Tucker Boulevard across from City Hall. Approximately a dozen police vehicles responded to the scene, including one large SWAT van, lining Tucker outside the jail. The Fire Department positioned a truck to be used as a decontamination station in case any law enforcement was attacked with mace. Both Police Chief Robert Tracy and St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson were on the scene.
Then, around 8:30 a.m. the corrections officer was wheeled out on a gurney. An hour later the Department of Public Safety confirmed the officer was the individual taken hostage.
As of 10:30 a.m. the police vehicles had mostly dispersed and Tucker was again open to traffic. The status of the situation inside the jail is otherwise unknown. The Department of Public Safety has been quiet about the morning's incident other than to confirm the hostage was freed and a press conference is to take place this afternoon.
Ward 14 Alderman Rasheen Aldridge watched the scene unfold at the jail from the front steps of City Hall.
Aldridge, who sits on the Board of Aldermen's Public Safety Committee, says that about three weeks ago he conducted a surprise visit of the jail, going in unannounced on July 31 with fellow aldermen Bret Narayan, Alisha Sonnier and Daniela Velazquez.
Aldridge said that the impetus for the visit was the release of numerous videos showing corrections staff macing detainees with little or no provocation. Those videos were made public as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the city over the treatment of detainees at the jail.
Aldridge said that conditions in the jail appeared better than one might expect based on those videos, but that he did find broken showers and a rec area that had little more than a deflated basketball.
KSDK reported this morning that the hostage takers had demanded "pizza and chicken patties" in exchange for the officer's release.
The quality of food has been an ongoing complaint among detainees. When Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah took over as corrections commissioner in September 2021, she said improving the meals at the jail was a top priority. "I came to the conclusion that, first things first, we need to improve the food," Clemons-Abdullah told the RFT at the time.
Defense attorney Terry Niehoff, who has numerous clients detained in the jail, tells the RFT he hears stories about the “horrendous” food the detainees are served on a daily basis. Clients are also aggravated, he says, by having to pay “out the wazoo” for chips and other snacks from the jail’s commissary.
This is a developing story. We have updated and will continue to update the story as the day continues.
We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at [email protected]
or follow on Twitter at @RyanWKrull.
Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
