ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis detainee has been charged in an attack at the City Justice Center that left a corrections officer unconscious during a meal delivery round, St. Louis Public Radio reports.
The incident happened around 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 11 when an inmate, identified as 23-year-old Damorieon Simms, got out of his cell after the door “inadvertently opened,” according to court documents. Investigators say Simms immediately assaulted the officer, identified by St. Louis police as Jerome Dunning, then took the officer’s radio and prevented him from leaving the room. Surveillance footage captured the attack.
Dunning was taken to the hospital with what police described as a “possible internal injury.” His current condition has not been released.
Prosecutors filed kidnapping and robbery charges against Simms on Nov. 19. He has been held at the jail since 2024 on multiple pending cases in the city, St. Louis County and St. Charles County, according to St. Louis Public Radio.
Simms’ behavior had raised concerns among jail leadership for months. On Feb. 8, he was accused of throwing a cup of feces at an officer distributing meals and, later the same day, throwing another cup containing an unknown substance at a different officer, St. Louis Public Radio reports.
In July, then-Commissioner Doug Burris sent a letter to the judge overseeing Simms’ cases, calling him “one of our largest problems at the jail” and warning that he posed a danger to staff, other agencies and himself.
“He is making the jail unsafe and destroying staff morale,” Burris wrote, urging the court to avoid further delays in Simms’ pending cases.
A mental health evaluation ordered in August has not yet been completed. Simms’ next court hearing on his earlier cases is scheduled for January.
