VIDEO: St. Louis Jail Inmates Break Windows, Set Fires

Katherine Rodriguez

Inmates at the downtown St. Louis jail started a riot within the jail Sunday night, breaking windows, setting fires, and throwing debris into the streets, according to a video of the incident.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department responded to the City Justice Center on Sunday night after inmates on the third floor of the building reportedly covered cameras before breaking the windows and throwing items like furniture into the street, KSDK reported.

Smoke began to pour out of the windows around 9:30 p.m. that evening.

By 10:20 p.m., inmates backed away from the windows, and the police could be seen inside the jail with flashlights in hand surveying the damage.

Once the inmates were moved, firefighters extinguished the fire that started below the jail around 10:30 p.m.

A half-hour later, inmates broke third-floor windows on the opposite side of the jail and began to throw items from the windows again, video footage showed.

Thirty minutes later, inmates dispersed from the second set of broken windows, and the crowd below began to disperse as well.

At one point in the riots, inmates tossed a chair from one of the windows. A man dragged the chair that fell into the street and watched the events as they unfolded. He eventually took the chair with him.

Inmates also tied bedsheets and tossed them out the windows, according to another video of the incident.

By 11:55 p.m., workers began the process of boarding up the windows.

This incident is the third time inmates have caused an uprising at the jail since December.

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