PLYMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - The Plymouth County Sheriff is blaming a prisoner transport van defect with allowing a shackled and handcuffed prisoner to escape onto I-95 in Waltham on Monday before he was re-arrested nearby.
The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department called state police around 6 p.m. to report that one of their prisoners had escaped from a transport vehicle prior to Exit 41 (Route 20) in Waltham, according to state police.
After deploying numerous assets, including patrols and the department’s Air Wing, the prisoner was taken into custody in the area of Second Avenue in Waltham.
He has been identified as Victor De Moura-Pereira, 20, of Framingham, who was initially placed under arrest by Framingham Police on Sunday for multiple counts of assault and battery on a police officer.
He has been transferred to the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement as he is currently subject to a detainer placed on him by that agency.
Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald said Moura-Pereira was able to squeeze himself out of the passenger compartment before pulling an emergency cable to open the back door.
“That individual was able to get that partition, as it were, manipulated and moved in such a way that they were able to squeeze themselves out of the passenger compartment of the vehicle and into the rear of that vehicle,” he said.
A witness who was fixing his car in the area said he was approached by Moura-Pereira and he asked for help and then a cigarette when he declined and called 911.
No additional information was immediately available
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