Armed officers respond to inmate incident at San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno
Sheriff's deputies and officers in tactical gear responded to the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno Tuesday after a pair of inmates refused to allow themselves to be handcuffed, according to authorities.
Aerial footage of the county jail showed the armed officers entering the jail at around 12:30 p.m.
Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Sheriff's Department confirmed that the two inmates who were in a cell together refusing to be handcuffed by guards and come out of the cell.
The incident started shortly before 11 a.m. Negotiators talked to the inmate for nearly two hours before they surrendered and emerged from the cell peacefully at 12:45 p.m.
The incident lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes. There were no injuries to staff or inmates. The two inmates were re-housed according to protocols and the incident is under investigation.
The incident comes just days after the union representing San Francisco's deputy sheriffs demanded help from the California National Guard, claiming that deputies who work in the jails were being injured in attacks by inmates.
A spokesperson for the sheriff's office later said one of the inmates was "in crisis."
In a letter sent by the union to the sheriff, the mayor and the president of the board of supervisors, union officials cited rising incidents of prisoner violence that had injured both deputies and civilians employed at the jails in downtown San Francisco and San Bruno.
In a press conference Tuesday, the sheriff's department said they believe the uptick is due to overcrowding at the jails.
