Jordan LaPier
The Arizona Republic
PHOENIX, Ariz. — More than 50 Phoenix police officers were scouring an area near 16th Street and Northern Avenue on Wednesday night for a suspect who escaped from the back seat of a patrol car while handcuffed.
The suspect was briefly in custody Wednesday afternoon after ramming a stolen vehicle into an officer’s patrol car.
Sgt. Joel Tranter, a Phoenix police spokesman, said Lonnie Hansel, 36, was a suspect in a Sunday home invasion in which he tied an elderly woman to a chair in her kitchen around 4 a.m. and stole her late-model Cadillac. The woman was uninjured.
Tranter said Hansel has an extensive criminal record, but is not considered a violent criminal.
Tranter described Hansel as White, with a very pale complexion and a thin build; about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with dyed black hair.
He was wearing a red button-up shirt and apparently lost the shorts he was wearing while trying to scale a wrought-iron fence in the escape.
Hansel was driving the stolen Cadillac on Wednesday around 3:30 p.m., when he tried to escape from officers who had tracked him to the neighborhood just north of the Pointe Hilton Resort at Squaw Peak, Tranter said.
Hansel rammed the front end of the officer’s patrol car with the rear end of the Cadillac and tried to flee on foot, according to Tranter.
The officer in the patrol car was uninjured.
Tranter said Hansel was in the back of a patrol car while an officer inspected the damage, and in a short period of time was apparently able to move his handcuffs from behind his back to in front of him by passing them below his feet, which gave him enough mobility to escape from the car.
A window in the car was lowered to allow some ventilation, Tranter said.
Tranter said Hansel may now face additional charges related to Wednesday’s incident, including aggravated assault of a police officer and escape from custody.
Copyright 2007 The Arizona Republic