Nine youths who broke out of a juvenile detention center in Pennsylvania have been recaptured, US police said Monday, with four of them knocking on a stranger’s door after one night on the run.
The incident was the latest involving a detention facility in the eastern state, where a massive manhunt last week captured murderer Danilo Cavalcante who spent 13 days evading authorities after his escape.
“All nine of the escapees from last night were picked up within the last two hours,” most of them within a few miles (kilometers) of the Abraxas Academy, a juvenile facility in Morgantown, northwest of Philadelphia, said Pennsylvania state trooper David Beohm.
State police and other law enforcement officers had been searching for the group that escaped at around 8:00 pm Sunday night.
Four of the youths, after wandering in thick woods to avoid a police cordon, essentially gave themselves up by banging on a stranger’s front door.
“They were tired. They were cold,” Beohm told a press conference.
The other five stole a vehicle and were engaged in a brief chase with police before they were detained, he said.
“They’ll all be charged with escape,” in addition to any other crimes they may have committed while on the run, according to Beohm.
Late Sunday, Caernarvon Township Police Department said the youths had escaped during “a riot” at Abraxas Academy.
But Beohm refuted that description, saying the juveniles “overtook two of the (security officers) to get the keys” and escaped the building.
Beohm said about 60 officers were involved in the search, along with K-9 units and drones.
Abraxas offers “detention services” and a “residential treatment program (that) provides specialized care for delinquent male youth between the ages of 14 to 18,” according to its website.
It is located about 15 miles west of the rural Pennsylvania town where Cavalcante was captured Wednesday after two weeks on the run.
The manhunt for the 34-year-old Brazilian national, sentenced to life in prison for murdering his girlfriend, ended when he was subdued by a police dog after having avoided drones, helicopters and law enforcement.
“I figured we’d catch these kids because they’re probably not as resilient as a 30-something-year-old… that knows he’s going to jail for the rest of his life,” Beohm said.
