ST. LOUIS — Inmates at the City Justice Center in downtown St. Louis reportedly smashed windows, created floods and set fires in the jail building Saturday morning, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Inmates at St. Louis Justice Center have taken over at least part of the jail. There have been protests over COVID-19 dangers inside. Not sure if this is part of that. pic.twitter.com/roSCtkIHSK
— Doyle Murphy (@DoyleMurphy) February 6, 2021
Some 115 detainees on the fourth floor of the jail clogged toilets, creating floods, and set fires, spokesman for Mayor Lyda Krewson, Jacob Long, said. Long said that about 65 inmates were being transferred to the Medium Security Institution this morning following the disturbance.
Inmates gathered near broken windows on the 4th floor of the jail at around 6:30 a.m., reportedly throwing debris out of the windows and onto on Tucker Boulevard, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Small fires could be seen inside the windows of the building, and some objects being thrown from the windows appeared to have been set on fire.
Inmates set fire, break out windows at downtown St. Louis jail https://t.co/VLpg0yNqR8
— KMOX St. Louis News (@kmoxnews) February 6, 2021
Firefighters and other first responders arrived at the jail before 7 a.m., as a small crowd congregated to observe the spectacle.
Long called the incident a “very dangerous disturbance” and said that the Mayor as well as Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards were present at the scene, the Post Millennial reported.
City officials said that all of the inmates involved were returned to custody before 10 a.m.
It’s unclear how the inmates were able to cause such chaos from within the jail. This is reportedly the third disturbance of this kind at the City Justice Center in recent weeks.
There are a total of 633 detainees in custody at the facility. The incident only involved detainees on the fourth floor, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
