Mental Hospital Escapee Captured
A man who escaped from Patton State Mental Hospital, where he was committed after wounding a police officer and security guard in Pasadena, was captured Tuesday at the end of a six-hour police stakeout of a Las Vegas apartment.
Tracy Bernard Washington, 23, offered no resistance despite previous vows not to be taken alive if found by authorities. Police said he was unarmed at the time of the arrest.
Washington was committed to Patton after being found incompetent to stand trial for the January, 1989, attempted murder of a Pasadena police officer and a public housing complex security guard.
The security guard and policeman were reportedly serving Washington with an eviction notice when he opened fire on them with a shotgun. Both officers were seriously wounded in the attack.
He escaped from the mental hospital May 23 after using wire cutters to open a chain-link fence surrounding the institution’s outer perimeter.
A plainclothes SWAT team watched the apartment where Washington was reportedly staying with his girlfriend.
Officers moved in on him as he drove away from the complex in a borrowed car. They arrested him several blocks away.
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