ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A convicted felon wanted on a federal warrant escaped police custody in downtown Rochester over the weekend.
RELATED: MCSO: Man taken into custody after escaping from deputies on Saturday, faces multiple narcotics charges (May 3)
What happened
Eric Fountain, 37, was found about four hours after he slipped his handcuffs from back to front and took off running while being fingerprinted at the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. The situation shut streets down, put drones and helicopters in the air and brought a massive police presence to what should have been one of the most secure areas in the city. Fountain was eventually found hiding in a drainage pipe beneath Court Street, not far from the Public Safety Building.
Fountain had been picked up hours before by the Sheriff’s Office. They say he was in a stolen car, lied about his identity, tried to run and was found in possession of a large quantity of illegal drugs. He complained of a shoulder injury while being arrested so, he was taken to a hospital and then to the Sheriff’s downtown office to be fingerprinted. Fountain was also wanted on a federal warrant for allegedly violating his parole following a bank robbery conviction in 2016.
Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter sat down with News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke on Monday to discuss the situation.
Interview with Sheriff Baxter
Sheriff Todd Baxter: “Because he had a shoulder injury and was complaining about that, the deputy showed him a little bit of empathy, a little compassion and double cuffed him behind his back, so it doesn’t put a lot of pressure on the rotator cuff…. Then he was brought into the booking station. He’s sitting in the chair while the deputy is processing him on the computer and that’s where he slips his cuffs up to the front, so the deputy doesn’t really notice it because he’s doing the data, entering it into the computer. He (Fountain) bolts for the door and because we’re in the public safety building you need fire doors, so he crashes out those two doors. The deputy ran after him and dove to tackle him but unfortunately as they’re rolling over, the bad guy lands on his head and knocks him out. He has one hell of a contusion on the back of his head, some scrapes on the front, he was unconscious for a bit of time during the struggle so, we’re praying for his healing and his recovery.”
Jennifer Lewke: “Is it typical that only one deputy would be with someone who is being booked?”
Sheriff Baxter: “It’s not abnormal, especially when they’re in custody and have been in custody for a while, it’s not abnormal. It definitely something in this case we want to look at because of his prior history and things like that, that’s more for officer safety and of course we don’t want this to ever occur again. That’s just what we do as a business, we always look at things and do an after-action review and see if there’s things that can be improved whether it’s policy or procedure or equipment…Again, it’s not unusual. I’ve booked thousands of people myself; I’ve transported thousands of prisoners myself, it’s almost abnormal to have two on one, certain cases when there is higher risk, but this is not abnormal to come downtown by yourself and go to the booking station.”
Jennifer Lewke: “And is it standard for someone to be booked downstairs here?”
Sheriff Baxter: “So, it’s a booking station, it’s a back-up booking station so, it’s not abnormal. It’s most often used for civilians, people coming in for fingerprints for different reasons, job applications or things like that, but it is a legal booking station, it’s something that we purchased and put in place but most often people are booked at the zone offices.”
Jennifer Lewke: “Do you have a booking station in the jail, is that an option?”
Sheriff Baxter: “Yea, yea absolutely. There’s a booking station in the jail. We actually book prisoners for the Rochester Police department in the jail so we’ve had a long-standing agreement since I was a city cop years ago, we simply brought them to the Monroe County Jail, and the jail deputies booked them. Towns and our road patrol normally don’t do that, the towns book their own, the road patrol books their own and then brings them downtown to the jail.”
Jennifer Lewke: “So, it’s not like you look at the severity of the crime and then decide where to book them?”
Sheriff Baxter: “We do look at the severity of the crime, the amount of resistance, the threat, I mean there’s a while threat management you can naturally go through and common sense but maybe put two deputies on him or three deputies and again, I don’t know the thought process of the deputy at this time, the guy is still recovering from one hell of a knockout, a contusion, some scrapes on his head and we’re showing him all the respect we can.”
Jennifer Lewke: “How do you take what happened on Saturday morning and use it to ensure something like that doesn’t happen again?”
Sheriff Baxter: “For people who want to sit back and Monday morning quarterback police officers, anytime they want to jump in the car we’ll join them. We deal with the unknown for a living. We literally deal with the unknown and it’s a very difficult environment. Bad guys try and manipulate us for a living and in this scenario, the bad guy manipulated a deputy from the standpoint that the deputy showed empathy and cuffed him behind his back and the bad guy took advantage of that but of course, we’ll look at this one, is there mechanical things we can do better, is there more police officers that can be involved in that when there’s a higher risk individual, we will assess all of that.”
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