Trending Topics

BWC: Fla. K-9 locates 4 escaped juveniles after they strangled detention officer unconscious

The inmates left the campus with the detention officer’s equipment, hiding in an abandoned vehicle until they were found by St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Bane

By Joanna Putman
Police1

HASTINGS, Fla. — The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office released video footage showing a K-9 help capture four escaped juvenile inmates, WPBF reported.

The inmates had escaped from the Deep Creek Youth Academy in Hastings on Oct. 14, according to the report. The incident began when two inmates assaulted a detention officer using a sock filled with a showerhead and a makeshift knife. The detention officer was overpowered and choked unconscious before the inmates took the detention officer’s keys and communication radio.

Three additional inmates joined the escape attempt, with four managing to leave the campus, according to the report. One inmate was unable to flee the facility.

Video shows a St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office deputy and a K-9, identified in a department Facebook post as K-9 Bane, searching a nearby brush area littered with several abandoned vehicles. The deputy identified himself after Bane alerted to one of the vehicles. All of the suspects were found inside.

The inmates now face charges that include aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, robbery with a weapon, false imprisonment, battery by strangulation, aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony, unlawful use of a two-way communications device and escape from a residential commitment facility, according to the report.

Trending
Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Deputy Antonio Aleman, 33, was killed when his patrol vehicle crashed into the back of the truck; he had served with the department since 2021
SB 4-C, which criminalized illegal immigration on the state level, was blocked by a lower court; Florida’s attorney general appealed to the Supreme Court to have the injunction removed
When a Marion County deputy stopped to check on the man, he fired a flare at the deputy’s cruiser and began to act erratically before being taken into custody
Ronald Mortensen, 59, was released from prison after agreeing to a plea deal and being sentenced to time he had already served