West Memphis, Ark. (AP) -- Police in Arkansas, say they have captured a Dickson, Tenn. jail escapee after surrounding him at a motel.
Authorities say 35-year-old Dennis William Palmer Junior robbed one motel before checking into another one nearby, shortly before nine o’clock last night.
Palmer escaped from custody Wednesday, taking a deputy and two other people hostage in a series of vehicle thefts.
The hostages were all released, but jail inmate Dennis William Palmer, 35, remained at large Thursday. He was seen in Memphis around 4 p.m. Wednesday, driving a stolen 2001 red Ford F-150 truck.
That’s where police said he dropped off two hostages taken from Dickson, Tenn., in their own truck earlier in the day.
He had driven the pair about 175 miles southwest of Dickson but kept their pickup after leaving them at a Memphis Wal-Mart, investigators said.
Palmer, an inmate at the Dickson County Jail, escaped as he was being taken from an appointment at a Dickson dentist’s office, authorities said.
He overpowered Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Newberry in the office parking lot and managed to get the officer’s gun, a .40-caliber Glock pistol, Dickson County detective B.J. Gafford said.
Dickson County Sheriff Tom Wall said the office will look at transport procedures because of the incident.
“In hindsight, two officers (transporting the inmates) would be better than one, and three’s better than two,” Wall said. “But because of budget concerns, we’re going to be looking at all that.”
The inmate took Newberry to a nearby gas station, abandoned the patrol car and stole a truck belonging to a local utility company, Gafford said. The truck was being repaired at the gas station and no one was inside it.
Parker tried to force the deputy go with him, but the Newberry refused, Gafford said.
“He probably did the right thing there,” Wall said. “Officers are taught to never give up their gun, and he didn’t. It was forcibly removed from him. This guy apparently just made up his mind to take the weapon.”
Palmer drove a few blocks and decided to ditch the utility truck. He then stole the Ford pickup and took its two occupants, a father and son, hostage.
The fugitive drove Doy Randall Tefft, 41, and Doy W. Tefft, 61, to Memphis and dropped them off. The father and son were unharmed, Gafford said.