The former Arkansas police chief who escaped from the prison while serving a 30 -year sentence for murder and violation has been recaptured after almost two weeks in the race, authorities said.
Grant Hardin was captured by the officials in charge of enforcing the law on Friday afternoon, approximately 1.5 miles west of North Arkansas prison that had escaped, according to the Sheriff’s office of the Izard County. His identity was confirmed by the Digital Footprints analysis, said the Sheriff’s office.
Hardin, 56, escaped from the central unit of Calico Rock North in Izard County on May 25 after putting on a uniform and impersonating a correction officer and being able to walk through a Sally port pulling a car.
Grant Hardin in the police photo.
Stone Arkansas County Sheriff Office
Hardin, the former Gateway police chief, Arkansas, declared himself guilty in October 2017 of first degree murder in relation to the death of James Appleton, 59, according to The Associated Press.
He was also condemned by the 1997 violation of a primary school teacher at Rogers, Arkansas, an outstanding crime in the 2023 television documentary “Devil in the Ozarks”.
During the search, officials deployed helicopters, drones and K9 officers. A tactical unit of the border patrol of the United States of Texas, known as Bortac, had also been deployed in Arkansas to help in human hunting, the authorities said.
Grant Hardin, a former police chief sentenced for murder and rape, escaped from an Arkansas prison on May 25, according to the Sheriff’s office in Stone County.
Stone Arkansas County Sheriff Office
The governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, expressed her gratitude for the local, state and federal police, and especially thanked the Trump administration for sending the border patrol, “which helped to track and stop Hardin.”
“The Arkansan can breathe relief because the violent criminal Grant Hardin is now in custody,” he said in a publication on social networks.
The FBI and the American sheriffs offered a combined reward of $ 25,000 for information that led to their capture.
Arkansas officials urged the residents of Izard county to remain attentive and close the doors of their homes and vehicles after their escape.
“I am very afraid that this guy will hurt or kill someone before this ends,” said Stone Brandon Long County Sheriff ABC News in the midst of human hunt.
Nathan Smith, former Benton County prosecutor who helped put Hardin behind bars, told Arkansas ABC Affiliate KHBS The escaped inmate is “a sociopath.”
