The Longest Prison Hostage Situation in U.S. History
Posted: Wednesday, December 02, 2009
by Scott Ranzau
On Sunday, January 18, 2004 I was working as a correctional officer on graveyard shift at ASPC-Lewis Buckley unit. To this point I had been working for the department of corrections for about 3 months. Everything was going as it usually does on graveyard shift, quiet with the inmates sleeping. At approximately 0330 that morning our unit was called by complex to send some officers to Morey unit, which was next to Buckley unit. They said that they needed additional officers at Morey to help with a disturbance in the chow hall. The kitchen workers report to the kitchen at 0230 to start breakfast for morning feeding at 0530. Myself and three other correctional officers responded to our sally port. As I came out of my building I heard three loud bangs coming from Morey. I figured it was the tower deploying CS gas from the 37mm gas gun to try and quell the disturbance. We started walking to Morey yard thinking that there was a fight between some of the kitchen workers. We got about halfway between Buckley and Morey when our unit called us on the radio and told us to come back to Buckley. We weren’t given any information as to why we had to come back. When we arrived back at our unit the officer that checked us back in told us that two inmates had taken the tower and had two officers held hostage. The bangs I had heard were one of the inmates shooting at officers from the tower to get his partner into the tower with him. The rest of the night we had to stay in our buildings and not allowed on the open yard because Morey’s tower can see onto our yard. Everyone tuned one of his or her radios to Morey’s channel to see if we could catch any information. We could hear our Tactical Support Unit setting up snipers on the top of the buildings on Morey unit as they radioed their positions. One officer reported that he was set up and had a good sight of the tower. Suddenly there was a response on the radio that said “And the tower is f*# & ing scared". There was dead silence on the radio because everyone knew that you never cuss on the radio. DOC had been fined before from the FAA for just that reason. The TSU commander then asked on the radio for the last unit that transmitted to identify themselves. To which the reply was “It’s the f*# & ing tower". TSU realized as we did that the inmates in the tower were monitoring the radio traffic. TSU then switched to a complex channel that no one else could receive except their team. The rest of the night was spent pretty much in radio silence and on lockdown, trying to keep the inmates at Buckley calm. They had only been off of lockdown for about two weeks when this incident happened. They were pretty upset. For the remainder of the incident, the complex went to two twelve-hour shifts, AM and PM. These made for long days with only two days off per week but the overtime was nice. I’m just glad that no officers were killed during the incident and everyone was able to return to their families.
Inmate Coy tied up the food service worker while inmate Wassenaar locked up the rest of the inmate kitchen workers in a dry storage closet. Inmate Wassenaar prepared for this incident by cutting his hair earlier in the week and shaving his beard, thus falling into compliance with officer grooming standards. Now he put on the correctional officer’s uniform, left the kitchen and buzzed the gate near the tower to be let in. Thinking that he was seeing a correctional officer at the gate, one of the two correctional officers on duty in the tower let Wassenaar through the gate and into the tower. Once inside the tower, inmate Wassenaar overpowered the two correctional officers inside with a cooking paddle he had taken from the kitchen. The paddle looks just like a rowing paddle only made of metal. He subdued both correctional officers before they could realize that he wasn’t a correctional officer himself.
While Wassenaar had gone to the tower and subdued the officers there, inmate Coy responded to a routine safety check of the kitchen on the radio, reporting that everything was fine. He also proceeded to rape the female food service worker while he was there. A second correctional officer walked into the kitchen office where he was confronted by inmate Coy and then handcuffed near the first correctional officer. Thirty minutes later inmate Coy released that second officer from the handcuffs to open the locked kitchen door. After unlocking the door, that officer ran into the dining area where two more correctional officers confronted Coy. Inmate Coy drew his prison made knife and injured one of those officers. Coy then chased the officer who ran away, who was now calling for an emergency response, out to the open yard. The staff that responded to the emergency radio traffic tried to stop Coy by dispensing their pepper spray and ordering him to drop the knife. Inmate Wassenaar had already handcuffed the two unconscious officers in the tower, took the AR-15 rifle and started firing shots onto the yard giving Coy cover to run to the tower.
At 0530 the Lewis complex duty officer was notified of the hostage situation and the governor’s office was notified about an hour later.
After the 15 day standoff, the many hours of negotiations finally paid off with the release of both officers and both inmates taken back into custody. Part of the condition of surrender was that both of these inmates would be removed from Arizona DOC and sent to another state to serve out their time, which after this incident worked out to be life in prison.
This hostage situation lasted 15 days, the longest prison hostage situation in U.S. history. I believe this lasted so long due to the director of the Department of corrections and Governor Janet Napolitano wanting a peaceful end to the situation. The only way they would even consider allowing the snipers on the buildings to shoot Coy and Wassenaar was if they had a shot on both inmates at the same time. Some of my friends that were snipers during the hostage situation told me that they had shots on both inmates about 5 times throughout the 15 days, twice in the first two days. The director and the governor both would not authorize the snipers to shoot. Many things were learned through the events over these 15 days and many changes were brought about. This is not to say that there could be more changes to protect officer safety but the department of corrections is reactionary instead of proactive. We will just have to wait and see.
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)It sounds like all around a very unpleasant experience. Well written article. thanks,richIt wasn't a very nice time in my career and to top it all off, I had just started working for the department. Thanks for your comments Richard.
Wow, what a story!I'm curious as to why prisons aren't designed with secret passages, doors, hatches, gates, etc. for the officers to employ when such situations do occur? Designs that would counter inmate takeovers with surprise. Are there such designs at newer facilities?There are no designs like that, that I know of. Most state prisons are older buildings that get renovated. The Lewis prison is the newest prison in Arizona ans was built in 1994. Instead of keys, they use a computer system to open cell doors. The designing of escape passages would be an excellent idea though.
Thank you for doing your job - it is one many of us wouldn't want... appreciate this article. MarijoThanks for reading my article and appreciating the job I do.
This was a riveting account.
I use to work at ASPC - Lewis / Stiner Unit. I was there when we took the rest of the PC's from Stiner to Morey. I left one year prior to this occurring to work for the Feds. I still have several friends that work at Lewis. I think it's interesting how no one mentions that the female officer who was taken hostage in the tower was not even suppose to be in the tower. Also that none of the security precautions in letting staff in the tower were followed. I understand she went through alot when she was in the tower, but why does she not take responsibility for her actions in the tower that night???I met with the female officer who was in the tower and yes, she went through alot in the tower. She was inthe tower with a new officer, who opened the door for the inmate without properly identifying him. By the time she went to question who was it that he popped in the door, all hell had broken loose. It is easy to put blame on people when you do not know all the details. If you do not work in a correctional setting, you do not know all that has to transpire. It is a thankless job and it is easy to criticize when things go wrong, but what about the praise when we keep things good.I think that is funny how she tries to put it off on the other officer. "By the time she went to question who was popped through the door", are you kidding me??? If your not fimiliar with the tower let me explain how it works. You buzz the gate entrance outside the tower to get in. Then there is two more doors that NEED to be opened by who's working the tower control panel. So, she could have stopped him at anytime after he came in the first gate to question who was at the gate. Not only that but if she would have bothered looking down out the window she would have had him trapped!! Try telling someone else who hasn't worked this Unit or Tower for that matter this BS!! Like I said before, she needs to take some responsibility for what happen that night as well!!
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