By Carol Robinson
al.com
ATLANTA — An inmate who escaped from an Alabama city jail is back in custody after he was captured hiding in a garbage can in an Atlanta neighborhood.
Tyree Chapman, 22, escaped from the Bessemer City Jail on Jan. 12 . He was taken back into custody Jan. 17 after leading law enforcement officers on a chase in Georgia, Atlanta police announced Monday.
Details of Chapman’s Alabama escape weren’t immediately available but police officials said it wasn’t a dramatic escape. After he made his getaway, however, he is accused of stealing a vehicle from the parking lot of Planet Fitness in Bessemer.
Atlanta police said they were notified at 3:37 p.m. Wednesday that a stolen Infiniti Q50 was in the area of 371 Boulevard N.E.
Officers requested the assistance of the Aviation Unit ( Phoenix 1) and the Georgia State Patrol.
Phoenix 1 was able to locate the vehicle in the parking lot of a Chevron and watched as the suspect – later identified as Chapman - exit the gas station and then get into the vehicle.
Officers tried to stop Chapman, but he did not stop and took off at a high rate of speed.
Phoenix 1 was able to track the vehicle to a convenience store located at 322 Glenn Street S.W. where Chapman abandoned the stolen vehicle and attempted to elude police officers on foot.
Phoenix 1 observed the suspect run through a residential area where he attempted to conceal himself inside a garbage can.
That information was relayed to officers on the ground who eventually located the suspect inside of the garbage can and took him into custody.
Tracking dogs helped officers recover a handgun that the suspect had tried to hide inside another garbage can, police said.
Chapman told police he had escaped from the Bessemer City Jail. He is wanted in Jefferson County on charges including first-degree theft.
In Georgia, he is charged with driving while license suspended or revoked, reckless driving. Fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and theft by receiving stolen property.
Chapman was booked into the Fulton County Jail awaiting extradition to Bessemer.
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