A nationwide manhunt was underway Sunday for an Ohio man who overpowered a sheriff’s deputy Friday and fled with the officer’s gun.
A nationwide manhunt was underway Sunday for an Ohio man who overpowered a sheriff’s deputy and fled with the deputy’s gun.
Police said 32-year-old Branden Lee Powell of Antwerp, Ohio, escaped from police custody while being transported Friday from a psychiatric facility in Toledo.
Powell, who was arrested July 8 and indicted on a rape charge, was being transported around noon on Friday, with his wrists cuffed and his legs in shackles, when he jumped over a seat and put a deputy in a headlock, causing the van to crash into a ditch, Paulding County, Ohio, Sheriff Jason Landers said.
He then ordered the deputy at gunpoint to remove his restraints, handcuffed the deputy to the steering wheel, disabled the vehicle’s police radio and engine and fled with the deputy’s wallet, mobile phone, gun and ammunition, the Associated Press reported.
The officer sustained minor injuries in the attack, police said.
At the time of his escape, Powell was wearing blue jeans, a dingy white and brown T-shirt, a brown sweatshirt and white tennis shoes. He is approximately 6 feet tall and 155 pounds. He is considered dangerous, police said.
Agents from the FBI, U. S. Marshals and the Ohio State Highway Patrol were assisting in the search, ABC News reported.
Landers’ office said Powell had previously slit his throat in a suicide attempt and had undergone surgery while in custody.
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