Teens riot inside League City treatment center
LEAGUE CITY, Texas (KTRK) -- Nine teens were arrested overnight after what law enforcement called a riot at a treatment center.
It began around 10 p.m. Friday at the Devereaux Advanced Behavioral Health Center on Devereaux Drive near North Calder.
Staff members were attacked as the teens blocked the doors and kept police officers from getting inside, according to League City police.
The suspects, ages 13 to 18, were at the center for treatment and used mattresses to cover windows, chairs to block doors, and damaged the inside of the facility.
The employees suffered bruises in the incident. Damage was estimated to be more than $30,000 inside the facility, authorities said.
Officers were able to get inside and arrest the group after around two hours.
The teens face felony rioting and assault charges.
The fire marshal ordered the building to remain unoccupied because of the severe damage to the fire alarm system.
League City authorities said they are very familiar with Devereaux Advanced Behavioral Health facility. Police, fire, and EMS crews have answered more than 450 calls since January 2019, according to a statement from League City police. The police dept. has documented 158 criminal incidents there during the same time period.
Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health released the following statement regarding the incident:
"Firstly, we want to thank the League City Police Department and officials from League City for their extraordinary support, last night and always. Our community is lucky beyond measure to be blessed with such excellent and caring law enforcement and administrative professionals.
Devereux is privileged to care for children, adolescents and teens with emotional and behavioral disorders, often resulting from serious abuse in their pasts. We are currently caring for 100 students at our League City Campus.
Last night, a group of 11 students caused a significant disturbance in two of our residential houses. We are grateful to report that no students, Devereux staff or law enforcement officers were injured. We have identified the students who incited the disturbance, and they are no longer on our campus.
With the help of the League City Police, we are also happy to report that today, our campus is calm and our students and staff have resumed all normal therapeutic and educational activities. Of course, we are working intently to ensure this state of calm, therapeutic engagement continues without any further interruption. This includes bringing on significant additional staff today. We are also working to immediately retain private and professional security officers to help ensure we do not continue to overburden our local law enforcement officers.
While we are very grateful that there were no injuries last night, clearly, what happened is completely unacceptable. We understand what happened and why. We take responsibility for it, and we are actively working to prevent any reoccurrence, and to ensure our students and our League City community always experience a calm, productive and engaged relationship and environment."
