2 US inmates escape from high-rise jail
2012-12-19 10:03
Chicago - A massive manhunt is underway for two bank robbers
who pulled off a daring escape from downtown Chicago's high-rise jail on Tuesday
by apparently squeezing through a narrow window and scaling down about 20
stories using a makeshift rope tied to the bars in a cell window.
Police helicopters and canine units swarmed the area, but
not until more than 3 three hours after Joseph "Jose" Banks and
Kenneth Conley went unaccounted for during a 05:00 headcount, US Marshal's
Service spokesperson Belkis Cantor said.
Both men were still at large late on Tuesday night.
Investigators found a broken window in the men's cell, where
window bars were found inside a mattress, according to an FBI affidavit filed
late on Tuesday.
Fake metal bars also were found in the men's cell, a rope
was tied to a window bar, and each man's bed was stuffed with clothing and
sheets to resemble a body, the affidavit said.
It appeared to illustrate a meticulously planned escape from
the 27-story facility that came a week after Banks made a courtroom vow of
retribution. Both men are facing hefty prison sentences, and the FBI said they
should be considered armed and dangerous.
Elite police teams stormed at least one home in Tinley Park,
a suburb south of the city. Although neither man was found, evidence suggested
that both had been at the home just hours earlier, according to the FBI.
Some schools went on lockdown after being inundated with
calls from nervous parents. Mike Byrne, a superintendent in Tinley Park, said
"our parents are so emotionally charged right now" because of the
school shootings in Connecticut.
Heavily wooded area
Hours after the escape, a rope possibly made of bed sheets
could be seen dangling down the side of the Metropolitan Correctional Centre.
At least 200 feet long and knotted about every 1.8m, the rope was hanging from
a window that was 6 feet tall but only 6 inches in diameter.
The facility is one of the only skyscraper lockups in the
world, and experts say its triangular shape was meant to make it easier to
guard, theoretically reducing blind spots for guards. The only other escape
from the nearly 40-year-old facility occurred in the mid-1980s, Cantor said.
Exactly when Banks, 37, and Conley, 38, escaped remains
unclear. Shop owners across the street from the wall the men scaled said police
suddenly flooded into the area at about 08:30, hours after they missed a
headcount. Police initially said the men escaped sometime between 05:00 and 08:45.
Both men were wearing orange jumpsuits, but police believe
they may have quickly changed into white T-shirts, gray sweat pants and white
gym shoes. The FBI believes both men were in Tinley Park, a heavily wooded area
about 40km south of Chicago. Authorities were scouring a local forest preserve
in the afternoon.
Banks, known as the Second-Hand Bandit because he wore used
clothes during his heists, was convicted last week of robbing two banks and
attempting to rob two others. Authorities say he stole almost $600 000, and
most of that still is missing.
During trial, he had to be restrained because he threatened
to walk out of the courtroom. He acted as his own attorney and verbally sparred
with the prosecutor, at times arguing that that US law didn't apply to him
because he was a sovereign citizen of a group that was above state and federal
law.
- AP
