Dozens of inmates at a St. Louis jail revolted on Sunday night, breaking windows and setting fires to the facility, according to reports.
Inmates breaking windows at a prison in St. Louis, Mo. BILL GREENBLATT/UPI/ShutterstockAbout 60 rioting inmates wreaked havoc at the Justice Center on the facility’s second and third floors beginning at about 8:45 p.m., police told KTVI.
Footage posted to social media by KSDK reporter Casey Nolan shows a number of prisoners breaking third-story windows as witnesses below cheer them on.
Several inmates held signs outside the windows, according to footage posted to Facebook by Real Stl News, reading “Free Ace” and “Free LJ.”
Nobody escaped during the chaos, though the inmates did drop a makeshift rope from the third floor to a second-story landing, according to social media footage.
By about 10:20 p.m., police officers cleared the inmates from windows, KSDK reported. Shortly after, firefighters extinguished a fire set by the prisoners.
Inmates then broke windows and set a fire in the back of the building, according to the reports. The second blaze was also put out by fire crews.
Sunday night’s chaos comes about two months after 117 inmates at the jail broke free from the cells and caused similar destruction, setting fires and smashing windows, according to KSDK.
Detainees throw chairs from the third floor after breaking windows in the St. Louis Justice Center during a riot in St. Louis. BILL GREENBLATT/UPI/Shutterstock
Onlookers watch the riot from outside the jail. Facebook