ST. LOUIS — Police say an 18-year-old detainee at the St. Louis Juvenile Justice Center attacked a youth leader Saturday and tried to free his fellow high-risk escape detainees.
It happened at 5:42 p.m. Saturday at the facility in the 3800 block of Enright Avenue.
Police say the teen assaulted the youth leader on duty, leaving him with a head injury, broke the window to the pod control room and released the doors to all the cells.
The juveniles there, who are considered high escape risks at the facility which has experienced multiple escapes in recent months, went into the common area at the detention center and tried to escape. They didn’t end up making it out of the building before police arrived.
Youth leaders are unarmed and not allowed to use chemical munitions or certain defensive techniques that guards in adult facilities use.
Police officers got the juveniles back into their cells and secured the pod.
The 18-year-old who started the incident was taken to a hospital to get stitches on his hands from breaking windows.
The juveniles also caused other property damage inside the facility, according to a spokesperson for the 22nd Judicial Circuit, which oversees the juvenile detention center, and all are connected to previous escapes from custody.
Since September, more than a dozen teenage detainees have escaped from the 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 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.
Police found two of the other teens and returned them to the facility – the 18-year-old involved in Saturday’s incident was one of them.
Six weeks after the Sept. 4 escape, 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.
On Feb. 5, four boys escaped. Police captured three of them within 30 minutes, but the 17-year-old remained on the run. He was eventually recaptured, but was among those involved in Saturday’s incident.
The other 18-year-old who police say participated in Saturday’s incident was involved in the October and February escapes. He has not yet been certified on assault, stealing, escape/attempted escape charges and property damage charges.
The 18-year-old who police say orchestrated Saturday’s escape attempt has a hearing in April on whether he will be certified as an adult to face charges for first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, resisting arrest with substantial risk of serious injury or death, resisting/interfering with an arrest or stop, property damage, assault, escape/attempted escape from custody.
The I-Team has been following efforts by the 22nd Judicial Circuit to try and curb the escapes.
So far, court officials say they are working on spending about $320,000 on a variety of updates, both physical and technical, to the building, which dates to the 1960s.
Another way juvenile authorities are trying to cope with the problem is by asking the courts to transfer juveniles certified to face their charges as adults to the city’s adult jail.
It’s a move juvenile advocates decry – saying those 18 and younger should be kept in juvenile facilities to receive the services they need under a roof designed to house and serve youth.
A judge recently ruled the teen in question – a 15-year-old who has attacked youth leaders, family members, fellow detainees and tried to harm himself – should be transferred to the city’s adult jail only if the courts can come up with a plan to address his needs as a juvenile inside the adult facility.
