A D.C. youth agency supervisor had his jaw broken and three other guards suffered minor injuries when a number of youths rioted at the New Beginnings detention center, The Washington Examiner has learned.
The incident brought dozens of cops from Anne Arundel county to the center, which opened last year to much fanfare and was supposed to be the new model for dealing with youthful criminals.
The incident started around 7:16 p.m., when a group of kids refused to go back to their wing of the building, corrections officer union leader Tasha Williams told The Examiner.
When the supervisor came out to investigate the turmoil, he was jumped by a group of kids. He was knocked unconscious and carried out on a stretcher, Williams said.
The kids then used the stricken worker’s key card to spring other residents out.
When police arrived, there were kids “running through the building, on the roof, everywhere,” Williams said.
It remains a mystery why the 20-year-old alleged ringleader wasn’t taken into custody. Instead, police left him at the center.
“The incompetence of the D.C. government has made that facility a threat to the staff, the inmates and any residents living near that facility,” D.C. police union Chair Kris Baumann said.
