Arizona law enforcement agents are searching for two escaped inmates facing dozens of years in prison
Law enforcement agents are on a manhunt for two inmates who escaped an Arizona prison Saturday night.
The two men used a large air conditioning unit as a ram to break into a closet and steal tools used for their escape, officials said.
Law enforcement officials said during a news conference Monday that they continue to search for John Charpiot and David Harmon after their escape from the state prison in Florence.
“We still have a significant fugitive apprehension effort manhunt going on. The efforts are concentrated in multiple different areas,” Colonel Heston Silbert, the director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said during a news conference Monday.
The state of Arizona and the US Marshals Service are offering a total of up to $70,000 in rewards for information leading to their capture.
Silbert said the department has concerns the inmates are still in the area, possibly holed up in a nearby home, and is asking residents to stay vigilant so they can recapture the men.
“If you as a resident in the area of the prison have noticed a neighbor hasn’t been around, or if you’ve noticed a coworker hasn’t come to work for a period of time,” Silbert said. “If it’s something that’s out of the norm, we would ask you to please call.”
Silbert said multiple law enforcement agencies are assisting with the search, with agents “on foot, out in the desert, going house to house” and search dogs combing the area for clues to their whereabouts.
Charpiot is a convicted sex offender who was sentenced to 35 years in prison, while Harmon was serving a 100-year sentence for kidnapping and burglary following a long list of past criminal convictions, a news release from the Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation & Reentry said.
“They’ve already shown and demonstrated that they’ll commit a violent act while they’ve escaped,” Silbert warned. “That’s a genuine concern of ours. We are concerned about the community. As far as we’re concerned, they’re both dangerous felons on the run.”
