Preliminary report reveals new details in riot at Regional Youth Detention Center

CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - A chaotic afternoon Monday at the Savannah youth detention center off Chatham Parkway.

According to a preliminary report by the Georgia State Patrol, law enforcement entered the facility at 2:47 p.m. and had it secured about an hour later, at 3:45 p.m.

All of it, in response to a riot that broke-out. After dispatch got a call that someone inside stole a guard’s keys, and let others out.

Troopers and Savannah Police teamed up to go in after hearing that the inmates could be armed and that one might have been stabbed.

Once inside, GSP says several inmates refused to follow commands but eventually complied when police dogs came in

The report says law enforcement then found a person who had been stabbed in the back.

The Department of Juvenile Justice, meanwhile, says two people had minor injuries.

One of them being a puncture wound.

WTOC interviewed two mothers, who did not want to be identified.

They say they were on the phone with their sons as the riot broke-out.

“And he said, they got knives. And they’re trying to get me and two other boys. I don’t even know these big boys.”

“You could hear them banging, and you could hear everybody saying, ‘hold the door, don’t f’n let them in. We finna die, we gonna die.”

They say it’s something no parent should have to go through.

“They need real officers that have been trained for this to be in there and know how to stop stuff.”

“All kids in here are not criminals, they are not bad. Kids do bad things, yes, and they are supposed to get punished. But when it comes down to a kids safety, that’s what they are here for.”

“You would think the state is supposed to protect them. They told me he wasn’t safe on the street, but he is not safe in there.”

This is a preliminary report from the State Patrol.

The Department of Juvenile Justice is also investigating.

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