ST. LOUIS — Three teenagers were retaken into custody Saturday morning after escaping from a juvenile detention center in St. Louis' Covenant Blu-Grand Center neighborhood, police said.
A total of four boys escaped from the St. Louis City Juvenile Detention Center around 11:45 a.m. One of them—a 17 year old—remained at large, said Jacob Long, a spokesman for the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court, which oversees the center.
Two of the other escapees are also 17 years old, and the other is 15 years old. Long said the three were found by police within about 30 minutes after they escaped.
Long said the teens were being held on charges including first-degree robbery, first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. Three of the teens were involved in previous escapes from the center; it was unclear how they escaped Saturday.
Since September, more than a dozen teenage detainees have escaped from the center, which is located on the 3800 block of Enright Ave., just west of the John Cochran VA Medical Center.
On Sept. 4, four teenage boys escaped from the facility. One of them, Martez Sipes, 17, was struck and killed by a car while he was trying to cross Interstate 70 north of downtown St. Louis on Dec. 14.
Police said Sipes and a 21-year-old woman were in a car that that was being followed by undercover detectives when it hit an embankment near the North Broadway onramp to the interstate. Sipes and the woman jumped out of the car and began running. The woman has not been located.
Two of the other teens, a 16 year old and a 17 year old, were found by police and returned to the facility.
Six weeks later, four more teens—two 17-year-old boys, a 16-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy—escaped. Three of them were recaptured; one of the 17 year old boys is still on the run.
And on Nov. 16, a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy escaped. They have not been found, according to the most recent information provided by St. Louis police. The older boy was being held on a first-degree murder charge.
Police sources told I-Team reporter Christine Byers that in one of the escapes, the teens stole a set of keys from a desk and assaulted several staff members before breaking out of the facility. In another escape, two teens broke out a window and ran.
At least nine other juveniles have escaped from another St. Louis detention facility in separate incidents in the past year.
Most recently, four 16-year-old boys escaped from the Hogan Street Regional Youth Center on Jan. 28.
And in July, five teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17, overpowered an employee, causing him to hurt his ankle. They also doused his eyes with bleach before grabbing several sets of car keys belonging to other employees.
The 14 year old and the 17 year old were returned to the facility within several days. The older boy was in possession of a stolen gun when he was found, police said.
The Hogan Street facility in the St. Louis Place neighborhood in north St. Louis is overseen by the Missouri Department of Youth Services.