ST. LOUIS — Police on Wednesday said five inmates, including three who were being held on murder charges, were involved in taking a jail guard hostage for more than two hours on Tuesday.
All five men are in their twenties. The other two were being held in jail on robbery and motor vehicle theft charges, according to online court records.
Authorities on Tuesday said two inmates took hostage a 70-year-old guard around 6 a.m. while breakfast was being served on the fourth floor at the City Justice Center. The guard was removed by the city’s SWAT team and could be seen outside the building on a stretcher just after 8 a.m. City officials later said he and two inmates suffered minor injuries.
City officials have refused to release other basic details about the incident, including how the inmates overpowered the guard and how many guards were on that floor at the time.
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Investigators plan to apply for charges against the men, all of whom are still at the downtown jail, said Sgt. Charles Wall.
He said those charges could range from assault to kidnapping to felonious restraint, but he could not provide details about what, exactly, happened between the guard and the detainees.
The incident underscored mounting tensions between the city’s civilian jail oversight board and the corrections commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah.
The commissioner has come under fire in recent months from the board, whose members have complained she’s kept them from accessing records and other information to which they’re entitled, and they say she has kept them from touring the facility to investigate complaints.
The Rev. Darryl Gray, a prominent activist and a member of the oversight board, spoke outside the jail after Tuesday’s news conference and called the lack of information released “comical.†He said on Wednesday the board planned to submit a letter to request to view the surveillance video of the incident.
The five inmates police say were involved are:
- A 20-year-old man in custody for 2 ½ years on first-degree murder and assault charges.
- a 29-year-old man in custody for just over two years on charges of first-degree murder and robbery, and kidnapping.
- A 21-year-old man in custody for one year on first-degree murder.
- A 21-year-old man in custody for a year and a half on charges of first-degree robbery and motor vehicle theft
- A 29-year-old man in custody for about six months on charges of unlawfully possessing a firearm and on fugitive warrants.