NEW YORK, NEW YORK - In an embarrassing turn for the police department, a 17-year-old suspected of attempted robbery sneaked out of a Brooklyn precinct house early Friday. He was the second suspect to escape a city station house in less than 24 hours, and like the first man, appeared to have made his getaway by leaping from a window.
The suspect fled the 77th Precinct station house.
“An unfortunate coincidence,” a police spokesman said.
The police said the second man, Ezekiel Edwards, slipped out of a low-security first-floor room in the 77th Precinct station house at 127 Utica Avenue, in Crown Heights, around 2:30 a.m. on Friday. He had been handcuffed by one hand to a pole. Mr. Edwards had not been put in a cell because he had led officers to believe he was younger than 16, the police said.
It is department policy to put juveniles under 16 years old in less secure rooms, where they are generally shackled to a secure post or bench, rather than in cells, out of consideration for their age and to keep them away from potentially dangerous older cellmates, the police said.
But young suspects are still supposed to be under constant surveillance, the spokesman said, adding, “Someone should have been in there with him.” It was unclear yesterday whether disciplinary action would be taken against the detectives in charge, and how Mr. Edwards led them to believe he was a juvenile.
As officers were typing up his arrest papers, Mr. Edwards either picked the lock of his handcuffs or squeezed his hand out, the police said, and apparently shimmied out of the holding room’s window, which faces a row of auto body shops, dropped 12 feet to the ground and ran.
Earlier that night, Mr. Edwards tried to rob a man who turned out to have no money, the police said. The victim flagged down a passing police car, and the officers soon found Mr. Edwards, who had prior arrests for theft of services and robbery.
No one answered the door yesterday at the first floor apartment on Strauss Avenue in Brownsville where Mr. Edwards lived with his family. At the precinct house, cardboard was taped over the window Mr. Edwards is believed to have escaped through.
His flight came less than 24 hours after a 27-year-old slaying suspect escaped police custody by leaping from the third floor of the 103rd Precinct station house on 168th Street in Jamaica, Queens.
That suspect, Maxie Dacosta Jr., was being interrogated in connection with the death of Darnell Angevine, 25, who was shot four weeks ago after getting into an argument with some men in Jamaica. Mr. Dacosta was arrested in the killing early on Thursday, and during his interrogation was initially shackled to a bench. At some point, the detectives removed the handcuffs to let him sit more comfortably, and then stepped out of the room to talk.
When they returned moments later, the window was open and Mr. Dacosta was gone. He is believed to have leaped to the roof of an adjacent two-story building, a 10-foot drop.
The lead detective who had been interrogating Mr. Dacosta was suspended without pay and had to turn in his badge and gun.
The police searched for both Mr. Dacosta and Mr. Edwards with bloodhounds and helicopters, to no avail. Both suspects were still at large last night.
The Police Department would not comment yesterday on whether there were any plans to tighten its safeguarding of prisoners, or how it would respond to these latest escapes.
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