Police Capture Escaped Prisoner After Several Days On the Run

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Police have captured the escaped prisoner who fled in the woods in Jessup near Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, where he was being transported on April 28.

David Watson, a 28-year-old serving a sentence of more than 100 years in Delaware for attempted murder, was found Wednesday night.

Howard County police say they captured Watson around 9:40 p.m., after finding him hiding in a 18-inch drainage pipe in a wooded area. The pipe had been examined earlier in the day, and officers had found packing materials and foot prints nearby.

Wednesday's ground search began around 9:30 a.m. when someone spotted a man near the railroad tracks behind a building in the 8200 block of Dorsey Run Road. The caller reported that the man was wearing a white hard hat and a yellow or orange safety vest. The man ran when he was spotted.

Police responded to the area and located a number of workers who were ruled out as possible suspects. A short time later officers learned that a hard hat and safety vest had been stolen from a storage building about a mile away.

A full ground search resumed in the area, including helicopters, bloodhounds, K9 units, tactical teams, and law enforcement from Howard County Police, U.S. Marshals Service, Maryland State Police, Anne Arundel County Police, Howard County Sheriff's Office, Natural Resources Police, and CSX Police.

Dorsey Run Road was closed from the area of Clifton T. Perkins Hospital to Patuxent Range Road.

The search covered industrial areas around the hospital, including buildings, trucks, trailers, and other vehicles.

The U.S. Marshals Service had taken the lead on the case Monday and had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his capture.

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