Kent Police catch RJC escapee

Published 12:05 pm Tuesday, April 12, 2016

It didn’t take Kent Police long to catch the man in the red jumpsuit running down Fourth Avenue on Tuesday morning after he briefly escaped from custody at King County’s Maleng Regional Justice Center.

Police received a call from RJC King County jail staff at about 9:37 a.m. about a man who ran out of the courthouse during his court hearing, said Kent Police spokesman Jarod Kasner in an email.

“He was dressed in his red jumpsuit and last seen running southbound on Fourth Avenue from the RJC,” Kasner said. “A couple of witnesses called as well.”

Officers caught the escapee at about 9:42 a.m. at Fourth Avenue and West Meeker Street at a covered parking area several blocks south of the RJC and just a block north of the Kent Police Station.

Kasner didn’t have any details about the man, the reasons he was in custody or how he escaped.

A couple of Kent Police staff members just happened to be walking back to City Hall from Starbucks when the apprehension took place in front of them and they took the photo, Kasner said.

The RJC houses a county jail as well as King County Superior Courts.