(Updated) A 43-year-old New Havener wanted for escaping from a halfway house found a way to escape from a state police cruiser, while handcuffed, and run away from the Whalley jail — before police caught up with him a half hour later on Dixwell Avenue.
State police sent out a press release Wednesday afternoon detailing that escape and arrest.
The man has been charged with escape in the first degree, interfering with an officer, and failure to comply with fingerprint requirements. He’s currently being held on a $500,000 bond, and is slated to be arraigned in New Haven state court on Thursday.
According to the press release, state troopers from Bethany picked up the 43-year-old from New Haven Police Department custody at 1 Union Ave. at around 10:43 a.m. Wednesday.
State police had an outstanding warrant for the man’s arrest following an investigation into how he “left the custody of a half-way house in New Haven, where he was mandated to stay by court order.” For that alleged offense, he was slated to be charged with escape in the first degree.
State troopers then transported the man from the city’s police department to the New Haven Correctional Center on Whalley Avenue.
“While parked at the sally port entrance awaiting entry,” the press release states, the 43-year-old “managed to manipulate himself while handcuffed, unbuckled his seatbelt and actuated the door handle of the cruiser transporting him.”
He escaped from state police custody at around 11:02 a.m.
He then ran through De Gale Field, with the state police cruiser’s driver — State Trooper Peter Atwood — chasing after him. (Atwood’s report says that the arrested man jumped out of the car at Goffe Street and Hudson Street “while the vehicle was still in motion.”)
Soon thereafter, the state trooper lost sight of the escapee.
“Nearby schools were placed into secure lockdown, and a perimeter was quickly established in an effort to prevent [the man’s] escape,” the press release reads.
State troopers, city police, and “numerous K9 teams” spent the next half hour searching for the man.
They found him and arrested him on Dixwell Avenue at around 11:35 a.m.
The man was then transported back to the Whalley jail “by a New Haven PD caged cruiser and processed on the outstanding warrant” for escaping from the halfway house, as well as charged anew for Wednesday’s escape.
See below for an earlier version of this article.
Police Apprehend Prison Escapee
A prisoner escaped “from the area” of the Whalley Avenue jail Wednesday morning — sending five schools into a temporary lockdown until the man was apprehended by city and state police.
The New Haven Police Department (NHPD) posted on the social media site X at 11:46 a.m., indicating that the man had been caught.
City police helped state police “with apprehending a prisoner who escaped from the area of the Whalley Correctional Center,” that social media post reads. “He is now back in custody. School lockdowns were in relation to this, they should be lifted shortly.” City police directed further inquiries on this matter to state police.
A state police spokesperson confirmed in a 12:08 p.m. email that “the subject has been located and is in custody.” They said they’d release more information later.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) spokesperson Justin Harmon told the Independent that five schools, including Hillhouse, “were placed temporarily on partial lockdown due to police activity in the neighborhood.” He said the lockdown was lifted after about 30 minutes.
“This seems like a very, very rare occurrence,” said Mayor Justin Elicker outside police headquarters on Wednesday afternoon. He said that the NHPD will meet with state police and the state Department of Correction to go over the incident.
When asked by NBC Connecticut’s Kyle Jones about proposed legislation to study the possibility of moving the jail out of New Haven, Elicker said he still supports the bill.
“The incident today is one small example of why it is not appropriate for a jail to be in a city,” Elicker said.