Two inmates who were the victims of a hunt after escaping from an Arizona prison in Florence last weekend were recaptured Thursday in a cotton field in the nearby community of Coolidge, officials said. Coolidge law enforcement officers and US noncommissioned officers captured David T. Harmon and John B. Charpiot after police received calls from several residents who reported seeing the prisoners.
Police officers who happened to be in the area working on an unrelated fugitive case responded to the reports. Police spotted Harmon and Charpiot in a cotton field 22 kilometers from the prison.
Prisoners refused orders to enter the camp, tried to flee and were captured after police used paralyzing weapons to subdue them, officials said.
Marshal David Gonzales said the prisoners asked police officers to kill them.
“Both said, ‘Just shoot me,'” said Gonzales.
A police video taken in a cotton field showed one prisoner falling to the ground before being captured and the other being attacked by police.
Both inmates needed medical attention, Coolidge Police Commander Mark Tercero told Casa Grande Dispatch. In a photo taken after the prisoners were captured, one of them had blood on his face.
Harmon and Charpiot escaped on Saturday from an average security unit in the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence, using tools to break a fence. Coolidge is 12.8 km southwest of Florence.
Authorities are investigating where the prisoners went after the escape and state prison officials are also examining how the escape occurred and how to prevent a similar violation in the future.
Frank Strada, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, said he was unaware of any information showing that prison officials helped the pair escape. No correction officer was suspended or dismissed as a result of the security breach.
Booklet via Arizona Department of Public Security
Tercero said that a local man called the police to say that he was following two men he believed to be the fugitives and that a woman called the police separately to report that her parents’ home had just been invaded by two men who had fled the foot. A third person called the police to say that he was chasing the men, Tercero said.
Tercero said state officials will determine whether people who call will be eligible for the $ 70,000 reward offered for information leading to the arrest of prisoners.
Authorities looking for prisoners previously conducted 800 door-to-door searches of houses in the prison area of Florence.
The state’s Department of Public Security said the prisoners allegedly tried to steal a business in Florence on Saturday night, before fleeing when an official shouted for help.
Harmon was arrested in 2012 after being sentenced to 100 years for kidnapping and high school robbery in Maricopa County. Charpiot was sent to prison in 2011 for 35 years after he was convicted of molesting a child and sexual abuse in the same county.