BOSTON (AP) – A man who climbed through razor wire to escape from a detention center in Rhode Island, stole a car and may have tried to rob two banks was captured in Massachusetts on Thursday by a state police trooper who chased him and grabbed him as he tried to leap over a fence, authorities said.
Massachusetts state police and the U.S. marshal in Rhode Island said James Morales was captured in Somerville, about an hour’s drive north of the privately run Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, where he escaped five days earlier.
Earlier Thursday, authorities said they were investigating whether Morales was the man who tried to rob a bank in Cambridge, Morales’ hometown.
State police spokesman David Procopio said troopers were in the area after a second attempted bank robbery in neighboring Somerville when a trooper spotted Morales walking. They said Morales ran, the trooper chased him for about two blocks and he was captured as he tried to jump a fence.
Morales was set to be booked at a state police barracks in Medford on Thursday evening, authorities said. He couldn’t be reached for comment while in custody.