After suspect bolts from Quincy courtroom, more restraints in order?
If you've walked inside the Adams County courthouse lately, you know how much security you have to go through to get past the front door.
Last week, a suspect in an Adams County courtroom bolted from the courtroom when the judge sent him to jail.
He got out the front entrance and a block or so away before officers caught him and brought him back.
KHQA' s Chad Douglas spoke with Adams County Sheriff Brent Fischer about how this could happen, and what's being done to make sure it doesn't happen again.
How seriously is this taken?
"It's very serious because we don't want it to happen again. Every time we've learned from it," said Fischer.
Something like this has only happened a handful of times at the Adams County Courthouse. Security to get in the courthouse is already pretty tight with an officer at the door, a metal detector, and an x-ray machine.
This is how it all happened. The man in court didn't realize the judge was going to sentence him to jail. When the bailiff tried to put handcuffs on him, he pushed the bailiff, ran for the door through here, which gave him a clear getaway to the front door.
The good news, the man was not on the run for long.
"We were fortunate to have the assistance of other officers. A couple were waiting for other courts, a Quincy Police officer and a state police officer were able to run him down," says Fischer.
Sheriff Fischer would be happy if this never happened again, and it's been discussed how to make it harder to get out of the building. But the sheriff says it's a public building with people coming in and out a lot during the day--many of them not for court reasons--so he has to keep that in mind. And something else to keep in mind, darting from the courtroom is just going to make it harder on the person who ran.
"I don't believe it's a slap on the wrist. I would consider this a substantial charge and may add substantially more time than what he was looking at," adds Fischer.
To add to security, court security people now have other restraints available in the courtroom such as leg shackles should they be needed.
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