Police say they've captured the man who ran away from police custody Thursday night while in handcuffs.
Sources said the man who is in his 20s, was arrested for shoplifting a nearby Gap, and he was being brought into the 1st Precinct station house when he fled into the nearby subway station at about 7:30 p.m. He was apprehended at about 12:30 a.m. Friday, about five hours after he escaped from police custody while wearing handcuffs near the Franklin Street subway station in TriBeCa.
Law Enforcement sources have told NBC 4 New York the man was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting at a Gap and was being transported to a stationhouse in a police cruiser when he opened a door and ran to the subway station.
No. 1 train service was suspended in both direction south of West 14th Street while police investigated, and No. 2 and 3 train service was temporarily suspended between Times Square and Wall Street.
It's the latest incident in recent months of a prisoner escaping NYPD custody. On Oct. 20, Gerald Brooks -- who had five warrants and 54 past arrests -- escaped custody in Brooklyn. He was handcuffed behind his back.
He was captured and arrested Dec. 2.
In August, a woman who claimed to be pregnant fled in handcuffs from a hospital. The month before, a prisoner ran barefoot from his cell at a Manhattan police station and another man escaped as officers were escorting him into a different police precinct. A man escaped in June when a handcuffed man shoved a police officer and took off, but he was caught about a month later. The other three suspects were caught within days of their escapes, police said.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said in October of the officers who saw Brooks escape: "They're an embarrassment to themselves, to the unit, to this department, and they're going to create a lot more work for this department as a result of their inefficiencies this morning."
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"If the cops were just paying attention to their responsibilities, a lot of this stuff would stop," Bratton said. "I'm very concerned when somebody with a pair of handcuffs, handcuffed behind them, can flee from three of my officers and they can't catch him. I'm sorry — there's something wrong there when that's happening, repeatedly, over and over again."