A SWAT team stormed the Bay County Jail on Monday to end an 11-hour hostage standoff, injuring a hostage and at least two inmates, authorities said. Three other employees were freed.
An inmate reportedly said he was upset about health hazards at the jail. The injured hostage was a nurse who was accidentally shot twice by the SWAT team, said Bay County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ruth Sasser. The woman was in stable condition after surgery.
Sasser said two other inmates who were part of the hostage-taking also were shot. They were treated and returned to the jail. Another inmate was taken to the hospital for a drug overdose; his connection to the incident was not immediately determined.
The standoff began Sunday night, when the SWAT team and armed corrections officers surrounded the jail. The officers freed the hostages Monday morning from the third floor where inmates had barricaded themselves, Sasser said.
Sheriff Frank McKeithen had gone to the site Sunday night to negotiate an end to the standoff. The inmates asked for cigarettes and pizzas.
Jennifer Elmore, an anchor at WJHG-TV, said she received a call Sunday night from a man who said he was holding hostages at the jail. He then put a woman on the phone who stated: "We are nurses at the Bay County Jail and we are being held hostage." The caller said he was upset about health hazards at the jail, Elmore said.
A private company, Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville, Tennessee, operates the jail under contract with Bay County. All corrections officers and nurses are CCA employees.
Officials identified four inmates as involved in the standoff; all were either awaiting sentencing or serving time for charges including armed robbery and burglary. Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Lisa Lagergren said more inmates could be identified once interviews are completed.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not