MI Fugitive Captured After Assaulting Officer, Police Vehicle Stolen
The Associate Press
08-12-03
Lincoln Township, MI – An inmate from an Indiana prison who escaped custody by ramming a police car with a stolen prison van was arrested early Tuesday following a struggle in which a Michigan officer received minor injuries.
Troy W. Burge, 41, was being held in the Berrien County Jail on five new charges as well as an outstanding warrant for escape from Indiana.
Officer Kevin Boyle of the Lincoln Township Police Department was treated for his injuries at Lakeland Hospital in St. Joseph and then released.
Authorities said Burge stole a prison van and escaped Saturday night from Indiana’s Westville Correctional Facility, which is 34 miles southwest of South Bend, Ind. He was serving eight years for burglary.
Bridgman police Officer Sheila Palmisano pulled the van over early Sunday about 15 miles north of the Indiana border. As Palmisano started exiting her patrol car, Burge shifted the van into reverse and rammed the cruiser, entangling the two vehicles, police said.
Burge then got out of the van and fled on foot.
Shortly before 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, Boyle was dispatched to a call regarding a suspicious camper trailer in Berrien County’s Lincoln Township, 10 miles southwest of Benton Harbor. Boyle confronted Burge inside the camper and the fugitive ran off, township police said in a news release.
Boyle chased Burge and tackled him near a railroad track, where a struggle ensued. Burge tried unsuccessfully to take the officer’s gun from his holster, police said. The suspect managed to take Boyle’s flashlight and strike the officer’s head with it before running off a second time, police retorted.
Boyle resumed the foot chase and, aided by other officers who had arrived in the area, managed to recapture Burge after a second, brief struggle.
Burge did not suffer any injuries that required medical treatment, police said.
Berrien County Prosecutor James Cherry said Burge faced the following charges in connection with the events of early Tuesday: breaking and entering, which carries a maximum possible prison sentence of 10 years; assaulting a police officer, punishable by up to four years in prison; and attempting to disarm a peace officer, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Cherry said Burge also was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and malicious destruction of police property stemming from Sunday’s events in Bridgman. Each of those two crimes is punishable by four years behind bars.
Under Michigan law, sentences for offenses committed by an escaped prisoner do not begin until the completion of the original term of imprisonment.
According to the Indiana Department of Correction Web site, Burge was sentenced last Sept. 6 after being convicted of burglaries in Laporte and Newton counties. Cherry said Burge also was serving a Berrien County sentence at Westville following his conviction of stealing an automated teller machine from Harding’s Market in Three oaks.
On Feb. 12, 2001, Burge used a truck to pull out the ATM from inside the store and remove it from the scene.
He pleaded guilty to breaking and entering and was sentenced on Jan 2, 2003 to 38 months to 10 years in prison, to be served concurrently with his Indiana sentences.