Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – Night vision equipment leads Howard County Police to a drainage pipe where an escaped prisoner was hiding out Wednesday night.
Police were searching an area off Dorsey Run Road in Jessup, Maryland Wednesday after a witness called in the morning to report spotting someone who fit David Watson’s description in that area. The person said the man was wearing a hard hat and safety vest and ran when he realized he had been seen. Workers told police someone had broken into a storage building nearby and stolen a hat and vest.
“What was concerning to us that no one had reported anything in the early stages of this investigation, so yesterday was a major breakthrough for us,” said Howard County Police Chief Gary Gardner.
After searching the area by land and foot during the day, police decided to take another look at night. Around 9:40 they found Watson in an 18 to 20 inch wide drainage pipe a few hundred yards from where the caller reported seeing the man who fit his description about 12 hours earlier.
“If you were following social media you saw a lot of people making assumptions that he definitely had to have help on the outside. I think the people who reside in that area, the people in many of the businesses, they knew that we had not left the area. We were there each and every day,” said Gardner.
The heavily tattooed man put up a bit of a struggle when police went to arrest him but it was nothing violent, Gardner said. He had some scrapes and bruises on his face but was otherwise okay. He was charged with escape and assault.
During an interview with police after he was captured, Gardner told them he survived during his time on the run by eating out of trash cans and drinking water from puddles.
Gardner said the convict never went farther than one to two miles from where he escaped.
Watson will soon be taken back to a Delaware prison where he is serving more than 100 years for attempting to murder police officers in that state. He had been transported from Delaware to Maryland where he is facing other criminal charges. He escaped last Friday after slipping out of restraints in a van taking him to the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center for a psychological evaluation. He ran into the woods after being taken out of the van.
“From the beginning we weren’t sure whether this was an impulsive spontaneous escape attempt, and that’s what we believe today. We do not believe that there’s been any assistance provided to him, or that this was a long-term plan,” said Gardner.
The person who called in the tip Wednesday will get reward money offered for information that led to Watson’s arrest.
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