Lawmaker Blasts Baltimore Murder Suspect's Release
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A massive search is on for a man charged with murder after corrections officials accidentally released him from a detention facility in downtown Baltimore.
Mike Hellgren is live with new information on the search and how a dangerous man could have been let go.
What makes it worse: it was more than two days before anyone even noticed he was gone.
Amid growing outrage, the State Department of Public Safety admitted release procedures were not followed---but could not say which ones.
Someone let inmate Rodriguez Purnell walk right out of jail when he was supposed to be locked up while awaiting trial on a murder charge and serving a sentence for assaulting an officer.
The brother of Terrance Rhuebottom---who Purnell is accused of killing---is outraged and demanding answers.
"When you've got the person in custody, how do you let him go? How do you let him go?" said Terrell Rhuebottom. "I think all of them should get fired."
State Delegate John Cluster issued a statement calling for Maryland State Police to conduct an independent criminal investigation into the release to see if any administrator should charge charges and he wants staff at the Maryland Reception, Diagnostic and Classification Center---where it happened---to come before lawmakers and explain the mistake.
No one with the Department of Public Safety would go on camera to answer our questions to answer not only how it happened but also why it was days before anyone noticed it.
But the department issued a statement saying its release system requires multiple checks and admitted release procedures were not followed and that a team of detectives is now investigating.
"Had that been me or somebody else, you would have beat down my door to find somebody. You can't find somebody like that. How did you just let somebody flip through your fingers like that?" Rhuebottom said.
Police combed West Baltimore in the area around Ruxton Avenue where the killing happened and near Purnell's last known address.
Corrections officials say Purnell went missing Friday and it was a citizen who alerted them more than two days later.
The victim's family hopes he's brought to justice.
"His family can go see him, feel him, touch him. My family has to go to a [expletive] tombstone," Rhuebottom said.
The Department of Public Safety says it is looking into whether any policies at the facility need to be changed.
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