DETROIT – A 16-year-old boy who escaped from police Tuesday while wearing handcuffs has been taken back into custody, officials said.
Chas Taylor, of Muskegon, was found around 4:05 p.m. Tuesday hiding in an alley in the 9700 block of Broad Street, police said. Authorities said they received a tip from a citizen who recognized Taylor from photos and called 911.
Taylor had been arrested Tuesday morning in the 1900 block of Ewald Circle on Detroit's west side, accused of carrying a concealed weapon and resisting and obstructing an officer, police said.
Taylor was handcuffed, detained and taken to the 10th Precinct at 12000 Livernois, police said.
While at the precinct, he was able to move his handcuffs from behind him to in front of his body and flee from officers, according to authorities.
"While in the rear of the 10th Precinct, he was able to escape police custody on foot," Detroit police Cmdr. Nick Kyriacou said. "At that point, he was handcuffed in the front."
Officers set up a perimeter where Taylor was last seen, but he wasn't found.
Taylor was seen by a citizen around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, but police couldn't find him, authorities said.
Shortly after the first viewing, a citizen called police and reported a person who matched Taylor's description climbing into a back window of a building. Police set up another perimeter, but the building was deemed too dangerous, so officials couldn't continue the search inside.
"It's quite a dilapidated building," Kyriacou said. "It's been exposed to the elements for quite some time. It had a couple fires. The staircases inside are literally crumbling."
Taylor had formerly been a resident student at Job Corps at the south end of the 10th Precinct, according to Kyriacou.
"There's obviously things we need to look at to find out what went wrong in the handling of this young man for him to actually be able to escape," Kyriacou said. "Obviously, we have some procedure issues we need to look into to find out what our officers did wrong to allow this to happen."