ST. LOUIS — One guard was hospitalized and others suffered injuries to their faces after inmates attacked them during three separate incidents at St. Louis' City Justice Center between Friday and Sunday.
On Friday at 9:45 p.m., the Department of Public Safety confirmed there was “an attempted assault” by a detainee on a correctional officer. The officer sustained minor injuries and is recovering, according to the department.
Then, at about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, two inmates assaulted a correctional officer, stealing his radio and pepper spray. Initially, the city’s Public Safety Division said it happened in the morning.
Editor's note: The above video is from a previous broadcast.
5 On Your Side reported Tuesday that the guard in that attack was returning an empty trash can to a cell when he was attacked. He was treated and released from a hospital for injuries to his face, according to Department of Public Safety spokesman Monte Chambers.
When another guard responded, the inmates had already armed themselves with a broomstick and the guard’s pepper spray, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The injured guard works for a private contractor the city has hired to put more corrections officers in the city jail due to a shortage of guards.
He did not have keys to the cells on him during the attack, according to the source.
The responding officer was able to use his pepper spray to subdue the inmates before they sprayed him, according to the source.
Then, at about 9:10 p.m., another inmate was refusing to go back into his cell and hit a guard multiple times in the face, damaging his glasses. The injured officer along with another guard that responded had to be escorted out of the area by other guards because they had deployed their pepper spray and could not see. At about 11 p.m., the inmate was secured back in his cell, according to the source.
Less than two months ago, two inmates attacked a guard on Aug. 22, stealing his radio, keys and pepper spray and freed about 40 to 50 inmates from their cells. The city’s Corrections Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah called it a “hostage situation,” while an employee who talked to the I-Team called it an “all-out riot.”
The city’s jail has also come under scrutiny following the deaths of 10 inmates during the past two years.
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