MIAMI --
Miami-Dade police recaptured a prisoner just four blocks from where he was able to escape a police transport to jail Tuesday.
In the four to five hours John Paul Garrido was on the run, he hadn't gotten far. He was found under a tree in front of an apartment building blocks from the Miami-Dade County Jail, where a Miami-Dade officer was taking him and two other prisoners when he bailed from the back seat of a police cruiser.
"This individual was able to get out of the flex cuffs, reach out, open the door and flee," said Miami-Dade Police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta.
Dozens of officers spent hours Tuesday afternoon searching a perimeter around the neighborhood of the jail with helicopters and dogs. During the search, they received a tip call to 911 that a man that matched the description of the 26-year-old bald man they were looking for was near Northwest 16th Avenue and 14th Terrace.
Garrido had been arrested Monday night for criminal mischief in Kendall. He has a record of arrests, and was already on probation in a strong-arm robbery when he was arrested again.
After his recapture, Garrido spent Tuesday afternoon with detectives wanting to know how he got out of the flex-cuffs and what transpired in the hours he was on the run.
Zabaleta said department policy allows one officer to transport a maximum of three prisoners in vehicles with cages that separates prisoners from the officer.
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