ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - KMOX has obtained a copy of a St. Louis Police document recounting the chaos in the City Justice Center Tuesday morning.
City Justice Center Commissioner Jennifer Clemmons Abdullah said the correctional officer, who she believes is 70 years old, or approximate, had minor injuries and was doing well.
The interim Public Safety Director Charles Coyle released a time line of police response. The incident started at 6:00 am, the first call to 9-1-1 was at 6:11, at 6:26, the first police officer arrived. Coyle said "at 7:04 am a request for the St. Louis Metropolitan Swat team was called out and the team arrived at 8:03 am."
At 8:17, the swat team went in, and by 8:20, the correctional officer was removed from the jail. The all clear was given at 9:38 am.
KMOX wanted to know how the incident started Clemmons Abdullah released limited details saying. "The matter in which it started was just a normal operation, inmates uh, doing inmate things, uh, it started with just two and it was during normal operation of serving of the meal and they saw an opportunity and they took it." KMOX asked if the guard was outside of the cell and Clemmons Abdullah said "at this time I would uh, want to defer that answer only because everything is still under investigation, we're looking in to it."
KMOX asked if the detainees had any kind of weapons Clemmons Abdullah said she was not aware of the detainees having weapons. But the police report clearly states a majority had weapons, including brooms, cords, metal brackets from TV's and more.
Clemmons Abdullah appeared to be wearing an anti-ballistic vest and KMOX asked if she always wears it. She said sometimes when she's in the facility she does.
When asked if the jail was fully staffed with correctional officers, compared to the number of detainees when the officer was taken hostage, Clemmons Abdullah said "we had adequate staffing." It's still not clear why other correctional officers did not come to the aid of the officer being attacked and subsequently dragged off.
Clemmons Abdullah says they were looking into internal operations of how the jail operates. As for the two detainees accused of kidnapping the correctional officer, restraining and assaulting him, Clemmons Abdullah says they both have a long history of disciplinary problems. KMOX wanted to know why the two detainees were allowed back into the regular population following the siege, but the press conference was stopped. Director Coyle said two detainees had minor injuries.
Officials were asked why it took the SWAT team and hour to respond to the Justice Center Director Coyle said 'the SWAT Team is made up of different entities that are brought together, uh, so it does, it will take some time periodically if it's not during regular hours. You have to remember this is at 6:00 in the morning, so before they can get there with a full compliment of personnel it may take a little time."
As to what charges the two detainees face, Coyle said "I'd like to leave that for the investigation to determine exactly what charges and that may come out sooner than later, but again we're still investigating and I don't want to put something out there that may be changed at any moment."
Another question, is there is a relationship with the oversight board and the operation of the jail and if the oversight board has access to the facility. Director Coyle said "the intention of the oversight is to play a major role with Corrections as with the St. Louis Police Department. If you guys recall, I sent out a letter sometime ago about the oversight board I wanted them to do or they needed to do and that was to do some of the things the Board of Aldermen said they needed to have in place. Training, consultation with all the stakeholders. So we have been working on that since June 1st I do believe. We have done almost 50 percent of the training so far, uh, I'm really close to completing the consultation with some of the other stakeholders. And this is what I mean by this, if there is an issue with an employee in the City of St. Louis, we have a director of personnel that must be intimately involved in that
and we need to make sure that that person is part of that consultation as well. So that's something we've been working on and hopefully will have it done sooner or later."
Director Coyle said the City will not release video of the incident because it's under investigation because criminal charges are expected to be brought and they don't want to interrupt the investigation.
The following is the St. Louis Police document that KMOX obtained:
Undisclosed
