A manhunt is underway in Tennessee after a man accused of numerous drug and child pornography offenses forced his way out of a police transport vehicle and disappeared, according to officials.
Sean Williams, 51, disappeared from the back of a police van in Greeneville while being transported to a hearing Wednesday morning.
When officers arrived at the courthouse, they found one of the van’s windows broken and the back empty.
“During the trip, it appears the inmate was able to use a component of the truck’s headrest to free himself from the restraints on his hands,” Laurel County Jailer Jamie Mosley said, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Williams was then able to “pry up the protective screen and force the side window out of the rear of the transport vehicle,” Mosley said.
It is still unknown exactly how Williams was able to remove the shackles while he was restrained in the van.
“This is an extremely rare situation to escape one of those [vehicles]“U.S. Marshal David Jolley said during a news conference on Wednesday. “I have a lot of questions about how this situation occurred.”
Authorities are frantically searching for the fugitive and warned that he is desperate and dangerous.
Sean Williams, 51, faces charges of production of child pornography, as well as drug crimes.
“We consider him to be the type of individual who would do anything in his power to avoid being captured,” Jolley said. “Which could mean breaking into homes, obtaining firearms, stealing vehicles, anything of that nature.”
Shortly after escaping, Williams was seen in Greeneville with blood on his clothing, suggesting he cut himself during his daring escape, knocking on the door of a house and asking to use the telephone, where he was not allowed.
“His leg was tied up and he was bleeding,” Nashala Livingston, the owner’s cousin, told WCYB. She “had khaki pants and was not wearing shoes, and she was also trying to cover her feet and ankles.”
There have been no sightings of Williams since then, a US marshal told NBC News.
Williams was already considered a flight risk after he allegedly made two escape attempts from the prisons where he was being held over the summer.
He was charged with production of child pornography in September, after being arrested in April when police discovered cocaine and methamphetamine in his car during a search.
Williams was last seen bloodied while knocking on the door of a home in Greeneville and asking to use the phoneWJHL
Williams is also at the center of a lawsuit filed by former federal prosecutor Kateri Dahl, alleging that the Johnson City Police Department mishandled an investigation into multiple sexual assault allegations against him.
In his lawsuit, Dahl claims his efforts to investigate Williams were blocked by the police department.
One of those allegations included an incident in which a woman fell from the window of her fifth-floor apartment to the sidewalk below, but miraculously survived.
That woman, Mikayla Evans, fears Williams will come after her and other women named in the lawsuit now that she has escaped, according to NBC News.
“He knows who those women are because they gave him a copy of the lawsuit,” she said. “I’m paralyzed. It took us two years to catch this monster and it magically does a Houdini act and disappears.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn