A five-day, round-the-clock manhunt for a potentially dangerous federal fugitive who had made a brazen escape from a Rhode Island detention center has ended on January 5 with a foot chase in Somerville. A veteran state trooper had snared James W. Morales as he tried to jump a fence in the Ten Hills neighborhood.
The 114-hour search, which kicked off while Morales had been discovered missing during a New Year’s Eve head count at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility. Finally it has come to a dramatic end around 4 PM.
Trooper Joseph Merrick, responding to a report of an attempted bank robbery nearby, had spotted Morales walking near McGrath Highway and Mystic Avenue, sparking a two-block chase that ended on Wheatland Street.
Morales had hopped a fence with Merrick in pursuit and ran toward Wheatland Street, where he had briefly avoided detection by hiding under a porch, said the State Police Colonel Richard McKeon at a press briefing on Tursday.
But he then tried to climb another fence, where Merrick pounced, grabbing hold of him as he was at the top of the fence and tackling him to the ground.
“After a foot chase, a couple fences, I was able to get him into custody” with the help of a fellow trooper and two Somerville detectives. Merrick said during the briefing held at the State Police barracks in Medford, “It was a great job by everybody.”
Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Kevin Neal said that Morales will be in federal court in Providence for an initial appearance on escape charge.
By Prakriti Neogi
