Tuesday morning breakfast at the St. Louis City Justice Center turned into a hostage situation when two detainees took a 70-year-old corrections officer captive and demanded pizza in exchange for his release.
Corrections Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah confirmed this afternoon that the hostage situation lasted about two and a half hours, beginning during the 6 a.m. breakfast serving process and ending a few minutes before 8:30 a.m. when a SWAT team entered the area where the hostage was being held.
Clemons-Abdullah, speaking from her office wearing a bullet-proof vest, told reporters that though the incident began with only two detainees taking the guard hostage, others joined in and aided in the scheme. The commissioner also confirmed that the hostage takers "did secure [the guard] with something," but would not elaborate on the specifics of the manner by which the corrections officer was held captive.
While the detainees held the guard, they issued a demand saying they wanted pizza, Clemons-Abdullah said.
This morning, around a dozen police, including one large SWAT van, lined Tucker outside the jail. Both Police Chief Robert Tracy and Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson were on the scene.
Interim Director of the Department of Public Safety Charles Coyle said that the SWAT team arrived a little after 8 a.m., entered the area of the hostage situation and took action against the hostage takers within 20 minutes. According to Coyle, the SWAT team used "less than lethal ammunition to take control of the incident" and it took less than three minutes for the SWAT team to wrest control of the contested area from the detainees.
Coyle added that criminal charges are likely to be filed "sooner rather than later" against the hostage takers. Clemons-Abdullah added that the two detainees who initiated the incident both have "a long history" of disciplinary issues.
As city officials gave the press conference, members of the Detention Facility Oversight Board were heading to the jail to demand its administrators release the surveillance video of the hostage situation and the events leading up to it.
The Detention Facility Oversight Board is a group of St. Louisans tasked with overseeing the running of the jail. They have complained bitterly in the past year about their lack of access to the facility itself.
"We don't know what's going on in that jail," said Mike Milton, who sits on the board. "We only know the jail's side, that this is about pizza or something like that."
City officials indicated that it's unlikely that surveillance video of the incident will be made public any time soon, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.
Pamela Walker, the city's former acting health director, who also sits on the oversight board, tells the RFT that jail administration talking up the demands for pizza and Clemons-Abdullah wearing the bullet-proof vest are "theatrics to make the prisoners look more dangerous and spoiled."
"So the place is so dangerous she has to wear a bullet-proof vest?" Walker says.
The incident has also led the oversight board to reiterate a long-held demand that Clemons-Abdullah be relieved of her duties.
"The mayor needs to fire her," Milton says.
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