San Diego police capture escaped domestic violence suspect from harbor
SAN DIEGO (KUSI) — A handcuffed suspect who escaped from the downtown San Diego police station and entered the harbor near the G Street Pier south of the USS Midway museum Sunday was back in custody a little more than an hour after his escape, police said.
Officers from the San Diego Police Department and Harbor Police surrounded the man at 2:10 p.m. after he entered the harbor water near the G Street Pier south of the USS Midway museum, SDPD Sgt. Jordan Well said. A police boat was used and he was ultimately taken back into custody within 20 minutes.1
Police began looking for the 42-year-old domestic violence suspect after he escaped about 1:15 p.m. while being processed at the downtown police station at 1401 Broadway, officer Dino Delimitros said. The circumstances of his escape weren’t immediately clear.
“He was being processed right here in headquarters,” Delimitros said, referring to the SDPD central station at 1401 Broadway. “Somehow between interviews with detectives and during the intake process, he got away.”
Delimitros described him as being dangerous despite the handcuffs because he was a “violent criminal” but said he likely wasn’t armed.
He was arrested earlier in the day on suspicion of domestic violence and was at the station being processed.
He was described as a 42-year-old Hispanic man, about 5-feet-6 inches tall and 160 pounds, wearing a black jersey with the number 99 on it.
Shortly after the escape, patrol officers were seen slowly driving westbound on Broadway, looking down cross streets and studying crowded street corners bustling with pedestrians as Comic-Con attendees roamed the city on the convention’s last day.
Inside the 7-Eleven convenience store at the City College trolley stop, a police officer asked employees to be on the lookout for the suspect.
“He’s wearing handcuffs,” the officer told two workers. “If you see him, call 911.”
At about 2 p.m., police radio traffic indicated an officer spotted the suspect in downtown and chased him to the harbor near the G Street Pier, where he entered the water. Officers on land cut off his escape routes, while a Harbor Police boat penned him in from the water.
“We’ve got him surrounded and he’s only a danger to himself being in the water with handcuffs on,” Sgt. Jordan Wells said as officers waited to take him back into custody.
The suspect was detained at about 2:30 p.m., a little more than an hour after his escape. Photos and videos showed him walking out of the water shirtless and surrounded by police officers.
