Rantz Exclusive: Officials accused of downplaying ‘hostage’ incident at youth detention, multiple officers injured

A group of dangerous teenage detainees in juvenile detention in Seattle held a staff member “hostage” during a tense standoff. But the president of the King County Juvenile Detention Officers Guild says the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (DAJD) is downplaying the chaos, dismissing it as merely a “disturbance” — despite repeated warnings from officers that something like this was bound to happen.

The standoff took place at Baker Hall in King County on February 14 at 8 p.m., according to a DAJD memo obtained by “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. The memo states that a “group of youth barricaded themselves inside the classroom in Baker Hall at the end of a scheduled program.” They piled up tables and chairs to block the entrance, refusing to return to their dorms.

These teens held a program facilitator in the barricaded classroom against her will, according to Guild President Manny Yniguez.

“The detainees decided to barricade the door, break furniture, and hold that volunteer hostage,” Yniguez exclusively explained on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

While the volunteer was physically unharmed, Yniguez said she was deeply shaken.

“To my understanding, that particular volunteer was extremely, extremely alarmed that something like that had even taken place, and they said they felt that their safety was clearly in jeopardy,” he noted.

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How did the ‘hostage’ situation escalate?

These weren’t just troubled teens acting out. According to Yniguez, three of them are accused of murder, others face Class A felony robbery and assault charges, and they are gang-affiliated.

Officers had previously warned management that these violent offenders should be separated, but their concerns were ignored, according to Yniguez.

“The officers were going to the management team, to their supervisor, saying, ‘This is a pack mentality unit, and we can’t manage one because the pack will get involved and come to their aid.’ And so the officers really felt defenseless,” Yniguez said.

Normally, a situation like this is resolved within five to fifteen minutes. This time, it took nearly an hour.

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Why did the standoff drag on?

The juvenile detainees armed themselves with makeshift weapons, crafted from the broken furniture, forcing officers to plan their intervention carefully. Making things worse, Yniguez revealed that officers had no clear protocols on who to call for backup, what actions to take, or what equipment to use.

“We have no protocols of who to call for assistance, what to do. We have no equipment. And so for a while the folks (officers) were wondering, ‘How do we even address this and, if needed, take immediate action given the fact there was a hostage in there,'” he said.

When negotiations failed, officers stormed in.

“After several attempts to deescalate the situation by staff and supervisors were unsuccessful, staff developed a plan to enter the room and quickly (within 25 seconds of making physical contact with the youths) subdued the youths,” a DAJD spokesperson confirmed to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

Officers were injured

Of the 21 officers involved, Yniguez says eight to 10 were injured — some badly enough that they didn’t show up to work the next day. The DAJD spokesperson confirmed that two officers “went to the hospital to be checked out after being struck by youths who were combative and resistant to being restrained.”

“We are grateful that quick thinking and professionalism by frontline staff and supervisors prevented worse outcomes in this situation,” a DAJD spokesperson explained to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “An internal investigation is ongoing, and we plan to use any lessons learned to mitigate the risk of similar situations in the future.”

One of the juvenile detainees reportedly injured his hand during the incident.

A pizza and a pat on the back?

So how did DAJD leadership thank the officers who risked their safety to defuse the situation? A pizza and a memo.

Yniguez wasn’t impressed.

“A pizza isn’t the solution. The solution is coming in and setting up proper protocols, giving us correct equipment, better training, and actually listening to the staff who work in these units because they were the ones that were crying out, saying something’s going to happen,” he said.

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The bottom line

DAJD leadership declined to directly address the Guild’s concerns, according to Yniguez.

The Guild president hopes that going public will force the county to take action. Right now, he says officers have no confidence in Director Nance’s leadership.

“We just have so many issues and we have no leadership. The current team that we have — from the chief of operations to the assistant director to the programming manager—nobody seems to want to come down to the floor and just ask, ‘What can we do to help you?'” he said.

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