The Inmate Escape: What CHP can learn from local law enforcement about accountability and transparency
He had a history of violence, running from police and escaping custody in a hospital, yet following the deadly Roseville park shootout, suspect Eric Abril escaped from a hospital again. In part three of our series, we investigate Abril's second escape and highlight what the Governor's police force, the California Highway Patrol (CHP), can learn from local law enforcement about transparency and regaining the public's trust.
FAILED POLICIES: One suspect. Three agencies. Countless questions.
- PART 1 - The CHP Search Warrant: A Controversial Decision
In the first of a multi-part series, CBS Sacramento investigates the decision by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to serve a planned, high-risk search warrant, on an armed suspect at a public park surrounded by kids at day camp, without notifying local law enforcement. A hostage was killed. Kids were traumatized. Yet, CHP remains silent.
- PART 2 - The Hidden Recordings: What Are They Hiding?
Next, CBS Sacramento investigates the public's right to see law enforcement records and recordings related to police shootings. The Roseville Police Department won't release most of its body camera video, CHP initially denied the existence of its dash-camera recordings, and Placer County won't release the hostage's coroner's report. They are all public records under California law which has many asking, "What are they hiding?"
- PART 3 - The Placer County Escape: A Lesson In Transparency
Finally, we examine the suspect's escape from the Placer County Sheriff's custody and the agency's notably swift and transparent response.
The Manhunt:
The fear was palpable: Streets normally filled with kids were, instead, overrun by armored vehicles on a sunny Sunday in July. Families across multiple cities were locked in their homes for the first time since the pandemic. By sundown, children were forced to fall asleep to the sound of police helicopters circling overhead, searching for an escaped inmate.
Three months earlier almost to the day, Eric Abril was arrested a deadly shootout with the California Highway Patrol at a public park surrounded by kids at spring break day camp.
Abril was reportedly wearing body armor when CHP attempted to serve him with a search warrant at the park. That's when Abril allegedly shot an officer and took an elderly couple hostage. Police say he used Patty MacKeegan as a human shield. Her husband, Jim, was shot dead.
A CHP task force was attempting to serve Abril with a search warrant at the park that day in April. The warrant was connected to an alleged unprovoked freeway shooting two months earlier and 20 miles away. Allegedly, the victim's dashcam caught Abril, a convicted felon, shooting at his car in February.
But Abril had a long history of prior felony convictions. He previously served just two years of a 6-year sentence before he was released early under California law. He also has a history of resisting arrest, and attempted escapes, including an escape from a hospital after an arrest in 2014 in San Luis Obispo.
Nearly a decade later, he did it again in Roseville.
The Escape:
According to an independent investigation, Abril was taken to Sutter Roseville by ambulance on July 6th, following possible seizures in jail. That transport was three months to the day of the Mahany Part shooting.
Roughly two days after he arrived at the hospital, just before 3 a.m., the report indicates Abril managed to slip his only remaining cuff off his right hand before escaping from his room and heading down a staircase while the single deputy assigned to watch him was in the bathroom.
Sutter Roseville is surrounded by a green belt with creeks and ravines, like those where Abril has been known to hide from police.
Roughly 40 minutes later, Abril was seen on a ring camera from a house along that greenbelt about a mile and a half away. But it would be 33 hours before he was finally captured nearby.
In the meantime, the manhunt re-traumatized families who were still processing the controversial CHP park shootout and it prompted a chorus of questions about how Abril was allowed to escape and who might be held responsible.
High Risk:
"This (was) a high-risk escape, for sure," said criminal justice research scientist Bryce Peterson.
Peterson explained that escapes happen more often than most people realize. In fact, a recent CBS News analysis of data from 26 states, revealed more than 1,100 documented escapes from law enforcement over the past five years.
Peterson said that while most escapes don't end in violence, Abril's was the highest-risk type of escape.
"Past behavior predicts future behavior," said Peterson. "He's already demonstrated a proclivity towards violence and those individuals are often more likely to use violence to facilitate their escape and to remain out of custody."
Peterson added, "By far, the strongest predictor of violence is escapes that happen during transport, so this was a very risky escape. We should all be thankful that this didn't result in any more violence."
Peterson was surprised to hear Abril only had one deputy assigned to guard him in a public hospital.
Because escape attempts during transport, or outside of the jail, are the most likely to result in violence, he says it's common practice to assign at least two deputies to any inmate who is being transported outside a jail or prison.
"This is definitely atypical, and again, increases the likelihood of an escape occurring...especially for someone who's deemed a high-risk inmate."
But Peterson says, to the Sheriff's credit, the Placer County Sheriff's Department immediately commissioned a third-party review of the policies that led to Abril's one-deputy supervision while at a public hospital.
"I take full responsibility for this incident," Sheriff Wayne Woo said in a press conference after the escape. "This should have never happened...we'll make sure it never happens again, at least not while I'm the sheriff."
The report highlighted several shortcomings in existing policy, which the sheriff publicly committed to immediately change based on the recommendations.
"The public nature by which they did it, I think is very commendable," said Peterson.
He says transparency is crucial to regaining public trust, but in this case, the sheriff's public report has been the exception, not the rule.
What Are They Hiding?
The CHP has yet to acknowledge any policy changes following its controversial decision to serve a planned, high-risk search warrant to an armed felon at a public park surrounded by spring break day camps without notifying local police.
The resulting shootout left an officer and a hostage shot, another hostage dead, and children traumatized.
CHP has also failed to explain why it violated state law for months by denying the existence of this dash camera video -- only recently releasing an excerpt in response to our ongoing investigation.
Roseville police, who came to CHP's rescue during the shootout, will only release 39 seconds of its body camera video and none of its drone video, raising questions about what it's trying to hide.
Meanwhile, the sheriff's department is refusing to release the hostage's coroner's report, which could confirm that he was shot by the suspect and not officers.
Countless Questions
"As the understanding on the part of the general public increases, support for law enforcement actually increases," said law enforcement consultant and former Sacramento County sheriff John McGinness.
McGinness encourages full disclosure but believes that even in its absence, important changes are happening following these law enforcement missteps
"There are lessons learned out of this," McGinnis said. "There are policy changes that will take place without a doubt. And the risk of something of this nature happening again in the future I think is dramatically reduced."
But the Placer County Sheriff's Office is the only agency so far to publicly address failed policies or changes.
Continued silence from CHP, which is the Governor's police force with jurisdiction across the state, has many concerned that this could happen again at any time in any California community.
It was ultimately a fourth agency, the Rocklin Police Department, that finally captured Abril after his escape. They immediately released their photos and video in an effort to bring some closure to a community that's been repeatedly traumatized by one suspect, three agencies, and countless unanswered questions.