Escaped Prisoner Sparks Hours-Long Brooklyn Heights Manhunt

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Dozens of cops and a helicopter descended onto Brooklyn Heights for hours Monday to find a man who escaped police custody and was roaming around the neighborhood, police said.

The man escaped from cops around 11:30 a.m. near Atlantic Avenue and Court Street as he was headed to central booking. He led an hours-long search through the neighborhood, with more than a dozen cops and several police cars lining multiple blocks of Court Street and a helicopter flying overhead, according to video and police.

Police said around 3:45 p.m. that the person had been taken back into custody, but didn't have details as to exactly when or where he was found. He was still on the loose as late as 2 p.m.

The manhunt had several schools put on a "shelter-in" alert, or when students and staff are instructed to stay in their buildings, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said.

“Due to police activity in the area, several schools in Downtown Brooklyn were placed on a shelter-in, and all students and staff are safe," DOE representative Miranda Barbot said. "The NYPD deemed the area safe for dismissal and there was no disruption to the school day.”

The man had been arrested in Southern Brooklyn's 60th Precinct and was still in handcuffs when he ran away, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and NBC. Police and the Department of Correction did not immediately have details about what the man had been charged with.

The intersection, on the border of Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill, is about a block from the Brooklyn House of Detention, a jail at 275 Atlantic Ave. that currently houses about 360 prisoners, most of whom are detained there as they wait for their bail hearings or trials. It is also a few blocks from the Kings County Supreme Court on Adams Street.

The Brooklyn jail is slated to be demolished and rebuilt as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to replace Rikers Island with four, borough-based jails in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.

That plan has faced pushback for various reasons, including some who worried that escaped prisoners would run through city streets instead of being contained to Rikers Island.

The Brooklyn plan in particular was voted down by the local community board and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, in part because they argue increasing the 815-bed jail up to 1,437 beds is much too big for a city claiming it is bringing down its population of incarcerated people.

Update: Police said Tuesday that reports that the prisoner was caught was a "mixup in communication" among NYPD. The prisoner, identified as Tyquan Ellison, was still on the loose as of Tuesday.