July 26, 2024
MORGANTOWN, Pa (AP) — Nine juveniles who escaped from a detention center in Pennsylvania and were at large for less than a day have been captured, state police said Monday.
All will be charged with escape and some may face other charges.
“We're going to interview all nine of them,” said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper David Beohm. “I know there's stuff in the works right now to decide where they are going to go after that takes place.”
Beohm said the first four were taken into custody shortly before 6 a.m. after they went to a residence and knocked on the door.
They turned themselves in because they were cold and tired, Beohm said.
The other five were captured after police received a report of a stolen vehicle and “a sort of pursuit” took place, Beohm said. Four youths were taken into custody from the vehicle and a fifth, who took off on foot, was caught in a field a short time later.
State and local police were called late Sunday to take control of the juvenile center in Morgantown, about 49 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Beohm said the escape happened after the juveniles wrested the keys away from two staff members.
Abraxas Academy is a secure residential treatment program providing “specialized care for delinquent male youth between the ages of 14 to 18 in 9th grade or above,” according to the facility's website.
The escape follows the capture of an escaped murderer who eluded Pennsylvania authorities for several days despite an extended manhunt.
But Beohm said the teenagers likely didn't have the desperation or motivation of someone like Danelo Souza Cavalcante, who escaped from a Pennsylvania jail and eluded law enforcement for two weeks before his capture on Sept. 13.
“I figured we’d catch these kids because they are not as resilient” as Cavalacante, Beohm said at a press conference.
The convicted murderer escaped from the Chester County jail in southeastern Pennsylvania on Aug. 31 by crab-walking up between two walls that were topped with razor wire, then jumping from the roof.
