Copter Swoops Down on Colorado Prison and Frees 2 Inmates

A helicopter swooped into the yard of a medium-security prison this morning and spirited two inmates to freedom, officials said.

Two women and a pilot were on board the copter when it set down at Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Crowley County about 9:15 a.m., according to the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Department.

The helicopter--and the bound and gagged pilot--were found later on the ground 35 miles north. The women and the escapees had apparently switched to a rental van and fled.

Pilot Tim Graves told authorities that the two women rented the helicopter under the pretext of taking some photos of some property east of Ordway. One of the women then pulled pulled a gun on Graves when they got near the prison and told him to land.

The inmates were identified as Freddie Gonzales, 21, serving a four-year sentence for robbery, and Ralph Brown, 21, imprisoned for sexual assault, theft and criminal impersonation.

The prison is about 50 miles east of Pueblo in the plains of southeastern Colorado. Roadblocks were set up on two highways in the area.

Liz McDonough, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, said guards were unable to fire at the helicopter as it entered the prison yard “because the line of sight to the helicopter was very awkward. There was not a clean line of sight.”

The guards also feared for the safety of the pilot, she said, adding, “We have indications that the pilot may have been taken by force once he was in the air.”

State corrections officials said the helicopter was a jet-powered Bell 206-A carrying the letters N1442W. A copter with that number is registered to Connelly Exploration, an oil-exploration company in Denver, the Federal Aviation Administration said earlier.

A spokeswoman for Connelly confirmed that an aircraft numbered N1442W was registered to the company but said she could not provide any other details.

Taking part in the hunt for the escapees were personnel from the Department of Corrections, the state Highway Patrol and the Colorado National Guard. The Guard assigned helicopters to aid in the search.

Authorities said Gonzales weighs 127 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes. He was eligible for parole in September, 1991. Brown, weighing 170 pounds and having brown hair and green eyes, was eligible for parole in October, 1996.

The incident was the latest in a rash of helicopter prison escapes and escape attempts in recent years. The most recent in the United States was in April, when a helicopter crashed after its tail rotor caught on a fence at the U.S. Metropolitan Correctional Center in Miami. Both the pilot and the would-be escapee survived the crash.

In July, 1988, a woman hijacked a helicopter and forced the pilot to land in the prison yard of the Penitentiary of New Mexico near Albuquerque. Three convicts escaped but were eventually captured.

In November, 1986, an inmate who had escaped a minimum-security federal prison in Pleasanton, Calif., hijacked a helicopter and returned to the prison to free a woman inmate who had worked with him in the prison business office. The couple were recaptured 10 days later as they were buying wedding rings.