Handcuffed Suspect Tries to Escape in Pelican Bay Police Car

7/16/02
PELICAN BAY, Texas - A handcuffed man in the back of 
a police car squeezed through a window in the divider and 
tried to escape by driving away Sunday.

The suspect told police he was only going to ask for a cigarette
when he started up the engine, accidentally hit the siren button
and gunned the engine.

The bumbling escape attempt occurred about 7 pm., when
officers stopped 31-year-old Stephen Erskine after receiving a
tip that he had stolen jewelry in his possession. He was arrested
on a warrant for a parole violation, handcuffed and placed in the
backseat of a patrol car.

Officer opened the window in the fiberglass divider so that
Erskine could get some air while they finished their work 
outside the cruiser.

"He decided to slip his handcuffs under his legs, slip through 
that small window and get in the drivers seat," said Pelican 
Bay Mayor Ronald Nightingale.

After getting into the drivers seat unnoticed by the officers,
he might have had a chance if only he hadn't bumped the button 
that activated the siren.

As Erskine gunned the patrol car, the two officers fired several 
shots. The vehicle flew 150 yards in reverse, into a ditch and
up the other side before becoming stuck.

Erskine was treated for minor cuts from broken glass. He was 
arrested again and booked into the Westworth Village Jail.

Erskine maintains he was getting into the driver's seat so that 
he could poke his head out the window to ask the officers for 
a cigarette. He also said he had permission to have the bag of 
jewelry they found in his truck.

Erskine faces charges of escape, criminal mischief, failure to 
identify himself truthfully and being a fugitive from justice.

I guess it just wasn't his day.


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Backup news staff writer Stacey Opland


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