Escaped Suspect Back In Police Custody Expected To Face Charges
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A handcuffed suspect who escaped from the NYPD in East Harlem was back in custody Tuesday night – and this was not the first time he had gotten away.
The escape is now raising new concerns about police efforts to guard suspected criminals. CBS2's Hazel Sanchez was demanding answers Tuesday.
After 48 hours on the run, police said on Monday that they apprehended the suspect who escaped custody after a small run-in with officers escalated into a manhunt.
Sources told CBS2 the man being questioned at the 23rd Precinct late Tuesday was 21-year-old Xavier Rivers, who has been arrested 25 times before -- including allegedly for shoplifting.
As he entered a Duane Reade drugstore at 102nd Street and First Avenue Saturday, the store manager recognized him as an alleged known thief and called police. Officers responded, handcuffed the suspect, and put him in the back of a squad car, CBS2's Magdalena Doris reported.
But police said Rivers was able to slip off one handcuff that Officer Henry Vidal improperly secured. Rivers managed to escape by opening the door on the opposite side of the squad car, police said.
"That's really something that the police have to crack down on," Bronx resident Tyquan Cole said. "I don't know what happened to the cuffs, how he got out."
"I'm not sure how he was able to do that," East Harlem resident Jeevan Sunny said. "I don't know the situation the cops were in either."
Officers ran after him, but during the six block chase, he got away. After searching East Harlem for hours on Saturday with no luck, investigators turned to the public for help.
A surveillance video was released and tips came flowing in. One led them to the Taft Houses, where two days later, Rivers turned up at home. He was immediately taken into custody.
Vidal has been suspended in connection with the incident for failure to safeguard a prisoner. Many were alarmed to learn that Rivers was at least the tenth prisoner to get away from the NYPD in the last two years.
"You would think that they would have everything covered," one man said.
"That makes me feel unsafe, and I'm sure everyone in New York feel unsafe," a woman added.
CBS2 asked Mayor Bill de Blasio how the NYPD top brass could allow another officer to make such a careless mistake.
"Commissioner O'Neill, on this regularly, is a real task master on this point," Mayor de Blasio said. "He doesn't accept the notion that these individuals can get away, and you've seen him mete out real disciplinary action in these cases."
Former police Commissioner Bill Bratton was less diplomatic and more outspoken in 2015, when six inmates got away from officers in six separate incidents – including one that showed an inmate easily outrunning two NYPD detectives.
"They're an embarrassment to themselves in terms of their professional skills or lack of them," Bratton said on Oct. 20, 2015.
The NYPD said there are no plans to retrain officer based on the prisoner escapes. For now, after these types of incidents, patrol officers citywide are briefed at their precinct roll calls on tactics to secure and safeguard prisoners.
Some people believe some officers simply are not physically fit enough to control their prisoners, and should pass physical fitness tests to keep their jobs.
CBS2 asked O'Neill's opinion on physical fitness requirements for his officers, but the NYPD did not respond to the request.
The suspect in the most recent incident, who is still in custody, has not yet been charged.
