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Suspect faces new charges after escape attempt in Hope, AR patrol car Tuesday, December 7, 2004 8:21 AM CST By LORI DUNN – Texarkana GazetteHOPE, Ark-A Delaware man faces an attempted murder charge after allegedly stealing a sharp piece of equipment from a dentist's office Monday and using it to threaten a jailer, an official said. The suspect, Myron D. Price, 29, then stole the patrol car he was being transported in and was attempting to steal another vehicle when he was apprehended about 2 p.m. Monday, said Hempstead County Sheriff Jerry Crane. A jailer with the Hempstead County Sheriff's Department had transported Price and another inmate to the dentist Monday morning and was taking them back to jail around noon when Price allegedly used a makeshift key to free himself of his handcuffs. Price allegedly made the key from the metal filler of an ink pen while he was in jail and had concealed it in his shoe before his visit to the dentist, Crane said. Price then used a "very sharp" dental probe he had managed to pick up at the dentist office and held it to the back of the jailer's neck. "He (the jailer) was going down the road and he (Price) put the probe to the jailer's neck ... It didn't actually hurt him (the jailer) but if he had pushed it in, it would have ... They did struggle and the jailer maced the inmate but the inmate was able to overpower him," Crane said. The suspect then used the jailer's keys to free himself from his leg shackles. Price then made the jailer and other inmate get out of the car, Crane said. Neither the jailer or the other inmate was injured. The suspect then drove the patrol car north on state Highway 278 and shortly before 2 p.m. he was allegedly attempting to steal a vehicle from a farm when the homeowners spotted him and called police. "I saw him jumping the fence and I apprehended him. I was screaming at him and telling him he had messed up," Crane said. Price was being held in Hempstead County on a aggravated robbery charge that stems from the Jan. 6 robbery of the Super 8 Motel in Hope. He has been extradited back to Hope from Benton, Ark., where he was being held on robbery and theft of property charges. Prior to coming to Arkansas, he had been in jail in Delaware and faces sentencing for several charges there, said Hope Police Department Detective Jimmy Courtney. Though Price only had about two hours of freedom Monday, it was a very tense time for police. "Anybody facing the kind of time he is facing will do anything to get away from law enforcement," Courtney said. Crane said the last time an inmate tried to escape while visiting a doctor or dentist was "about eight or nine years ago." The Arkansas Highway Police and Arkansas State Police assisted the Hempstead County Sheriff's Department and the Hope Police Department in searching for Price. The public assisted in the search as well after hearing radio traffic about Price's escape on police scanners. "We had a lot of citizens calling us when they heard the car was stolen," Crane said. |