POUGHKEEPSIE – At 1:06 pm on Monday, September 7, a Poughkeepsie police officer was dispatched to the Rite Aid on Hooker Avenue for a welfare check of a woman which led to a handcuffed man escaping police custody.
As the officer was checking on the woman, pharmacy employees alerted the officer that the man who had just exited had shoplifted.
The officer apprehended the man, placed him in handcuffs, and escorted him to the patrol vehicle. As the officer was unlocking the vehicle, the handcuffed man fled the area on foot.
Additional City of Poughkeepsie officers responded to the area as well as New York State Troopers and a K9 unit from the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office. The K9 and the law enforcement officers scoured the neighborhood for the suspect, described as a white male with a medium build, wearing handcuffs and brown shorts, unsuccessfully.
Residents of Underhill Avenue said that the man, still wearing handcuffs, was seen running down their driveways, in the mid-afternoon of Monday.
According to City of Poughkeepsie Police Captain Richard Wilson, the suspect had not been located as of 4:00 pm on Tuesday.
