The fifth inmate who escaped from a Pulaski County jail Friday was taken into custody Tuesday night in Middle Georgia, authorities said.
Warner Robins police announced the arrest of 33-year-old Tyree Williams, the final inmate still at large. He was located hiding behind a building just outside Robins Air Force Base and taken into custody with the help of U.S. marshals, the police department said in a news release.
Williams, Dennis Penix Jr., Brandon Pooler, Lewis Wendell Evans III and Tyree Jackson were the subjects of a blue alert issued by the GBI.
“An amazing piece of investigative work, and exhaustive search led to the capture of all five escapees from the Pulaski County Detention Facility,” Warner Robins police said.
The GBI said all five men have violent histories, and two are charged with murder. Williams is charged in a July 2020 deadly home invasion in Pulaski County. Penix, 28, is accused in a 2017 deadly double shooting during a drug deal, Macon-based news station WGXA reported.
Pooler, 24, was jailed on a charge of child cruelty. Jackson, 27, was charged with breaking into vehicles, and Evans, 22, was jailed on an obstruction charge, according to WGXA. Additional charges related to the escape are expected.
Authorities said the five suspects escaped from the Pulaski County Detention Center about 11:15 p.m. Friday in a white 2015 Kia Sedona van. The men overpowered their jailer, took her keys and locked her and another jail staffer in a cell before leaving, Sheriff Danny Brannon said. They left in the van, which was stolen from the jail parking lot.
Hawkinsville, the city where the detention center is located, is roughly 50 miles south of Macon. Brannon blamed the escape partially on a staffing shortage at the jail, where he said they needed about a dozen additional jailers.
The escape has led the sheriff’s office to reevaluate some of its procedures, Brannon said. In the future, when jail staffers need to have direct contact with inmates, they will call an on-duty deputy for additional support.
At least three of the escaped men were located in Warner Robins. Details on all the arrests were not provided by the GBI.
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