Inmate Escapes From Calif. Criminally Insane Facility
April 03--Law enforcement captured a Patton State Hospital inmate this morning shortly after he jumped a fence and escaped from the facility for the criminally insane.
San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies received a report about 9:30 a.m. regarding a person wearing an all-brown state inmate uniform who jumped a fence at Patton, located near the San Bernardino and Highland city limits.
The man was later spotted in a wash near the corner or Mercedes Avenue and Orange Street.
Bonnie Oehl Elementary and Serrano Middle school in Highland were locked down at 9:37 a.m. There is no evidence that the man ever entered either campus.
"It was just as a courtesy because of the proximity of those schools," said San Bernardino City Unified School
District spokeswoman Linda Bardere.
Police took the man into custody minutes later. The lockdown on both schools was lifted at 9:57 a.m., Bardere said.
Copyright 2012 - San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.