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| Police capture prison escapee today |
| By Centre Daily |
| Published: 08/15/2005 |
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Derick Michael Musser, on the lam from the Centre County, Pa., Correctional Facility for six hours over the weekend, surrendered to State College police Cpl. Brad Smail about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Smail was on routine patrol along College Avenue and had driven down the exit ramp from University Drive when he spotted Musser walking toward State College. "I told him to stop, and I asked him if he was Derick," Smail said. "He initially said, 'No.' I had an officer who knew him by looking at him en route, and that's when he confessed." The other officer transported Musser back to the prison. In the wake of the escape, just a week after the opening of the prison, county officials said they will review policies and procedures to determine where changes might need to be made. Musser, 27, of Altoona, was serving an 18- to 36-month sentence on a probation violation stemming from a retail theft conviction. Authorities say he ran from the kitchen area of the prison about 6 p.m. Saturday. He sprinted about 100 yards across a field in front of the prison, crossed the Benner Pike and disappeared into the woods along Paradise Road, police said. Musser, who's been in Centre County custody since June, had earned trustee status, which means he had the freedom to be in minimum-security areas. He was taking out trash when he made his escape. He was being escorted by a civilian kitchen cook, which Warden Martin Kovacs said is standard practice. County administrator Tim Boyde did not have an estimate of the cost of the manhunt, which involved state police and several municipal police agencies. One point that could be under review is the deployment of the county's Code Red alert system. The automated message system can deliver thousands of phone calls to selected homes and businesses within minutes to alert residents to situations such as a prison escape. On Saturday, the system made calls to 3,000 homes in Bellefonte, Pleasant Gap, Milesburg and parts of State College and Centre Hall. Boyde said there had been some discussions of deploying the system, but he did not know it had been activated until he read it in Sunday's newspaper. Boyde said he also understood that there was some confusion in the message that the system delivered, leading those who received it to believe the inmate had escaped from the State Correctional Institution at Rockview. People flooded the county's 911 center with calls after receiving the message, even though they were instructed not to, Boyde said. |
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