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E-mail StoryMurder suspect escapes deputies at KMC, breaks into home before recapture
| Friday, May 16 2008 9:28 AM
Last Updated: Monday, May 19 2008 7:35 AM
Sheila Warren was asleep with her boyfriend Friday morning in her east Bakersfield apartment when she heard a man sliding her window open.
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Tony Anderson, walks near the window that escaped prisoner Andrew Quinton Hernandez dove into Friday morning where Anderson was sleeping on the couch. Hernandez escaped from a Kern County Sheriff transport van in the KMC parking lot and was captured shortly after by Kern County Sheriff Deputy bicycle patrol members.
Kern County Sheriff Deputy Roger Dixon wipes the sweat from his brow after capturing an escaped prisoner Friday morning in east Bakersfield. The prisoner is in the back of this vehicle.
Kern County Deputy Sheriff's who were instrumental in the capture of an escaped prisoner, Alfred Juarez, left, and Roger Dixon, get back on their bicycles after Friday mornings incident near KMC.
Kern County Sheriff deputies merge onto the scene of this east Bakersfield apartment Friday morning where an escaped prisoner was captured after he ran from the transport van after taking his shackles off at KMC.
Escaped prisoner Andrew Quinton Hernandez is in the back of this Kern County Sheriff vehicle Friday in east Bakersfield after he escaped from a transportation van at KMC and was captured a short while after his escape by officers on bike patrol with the Kern County Sheriff department. Sgt., James Craig, left, was the officer in charge on the scene.
She had no idea the man was an escaped inmate who is accused of murder.
“He jumped through the window and said, “Help me. My family's got lots of money. I'll give you money if you don't tell anyone I’m here,” she said. “We sat there shocked for a minute as he stood by the door. I was real scared.”
A few minutes later, deputies had murder suspect Andrew Quinton Hernandez in custody. He escaped while at Kern Medical Center, ran through east Bakersfield streets and broke into the apartment on Quincy Street with five sleeping residents before being tazed and captured by deputies.
Hernandez was getting blood work done at the hospital under deputy supervision just before 8 a.m. He was sitting in a van, shackled at the waist and legs, when he was able to free himself using a handcuff key. Where he got the key is under investigation.
Free from his shackles, Hernandez jumped out the van's back door and pushed and ran past deputies.
Hernandez, who is described by officials as a skinhead, zigzagged through a neighborhood south of the hospital while three deputies on bikes set up a perimeter. The bicycle deputies had pedaled over from a substation two blocks away.
Then Hernandez climbed into Warren’s window.
Moments later deputies burst through the apartment’s front door. Tony Anderson was sleeping on a mattress on the floor when deputies busted through.
“It woke us up. It was a surprise,” Anderson said, who had no idea there was someone in the house. “They said they were looking for a white guy, and I said, ‘There is no white guy here.'
Bike patrol deputies went to the back room where Hernandez was hiding behind the door. Warren and her boyfriend ran out of the bedroom and into the hallway.
Because Hernandez was not cooperating with deputy’s orders to come outside the room, and because he was a “high risk” suspect, deputy Roger Dixon said he tazed him. Hernandez collapsed onto the bed.
The chase and arrest took less than two minutes, said Sgt. Jim Craig. No one was injured.
“Once we arrived on scene, we found out he was a (murder) suspect,” deputy Alfred Juarez said. “We were glad we were able to apprehend him quickly.”
Hernandez was charged with the murder of Jon Roman Summons in August 2006 after he was found dead in the Kern River near Borel Road. Summons, who was missing for three weeks, was originally believed to be a drowning victim, but an autopsy revealed he died from a shotgun wound to his head. Officials believe Hernandez was responsible.
He is scheduled for a hearing Oct. 10 on a first-degree murder charge, and a trial Oct. 20, according to court records.
Hernandez was charged in Friday’s incident with jail escape while charged with a felony, according to sheriff’s department records. He has a hearing on the escape Tuesday.
Deputies have “no idea where the handcuff key came from,” Craig said. The department is investigating.
The residents were shaken up after they found out Hernandez was what officials called a “skinhead” and “murder suspect.”
“We're lucky he didn't take anyone hostage,” Anderson said.