By Jeremy Maready
The Ledger
LAKE WALES, Fla. — Naked and shackled, a Polk County Jail inmate escaped from custody at Lake Wales Hospital and shuffled about 300 yards outside of the facility before being recaptured Tuesday afternoon.
Bradley Norris, 20, of Bartow, also injured a Polk County Sheriff’s detention deputy who was guarding him in the hospital when he escaped from his hospital room.
Norris had been taken to the hospital from the jail Thursday. He was under around-the-clock guard, which is standard procedure.
About 12:20 p.m. Tuesday, Norris told Detention Deputy Michelle Threatt, 40, he needed to use the bathroom.
Following standard procedure, Threatt shacked Norris’ ankles together and then took off the cuffs and shackles that held him to the bed.
When he got up from the bed, Norris hit Threatt on the head, overpowered her, and fled the room, reports said. During the struggle, Norris’ gown was torn from his body.
Shackled, he shuffled out of the room and through the hospital with Threatt in pursuit.
Two visitors at the hospital saw what was going on and tried to stop Norris, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Carrie Eleazer. “I don’t know where he thought he was going.”
Lake Wales police officers and sheriff’s deputies went to the hospital after hearing the radio call about the escape.
Norris was spotted about 300 yards away from the hospital at the Lake Wales Art Center on State Road 60 by Lake Wales police, with deputies close behind.
He was quickly taken into custody by officers and deputies. Additional charges against Norris, which include escape and battery on a law enforcement officer, are pending, reports said.
Threatt, who has been a detention deputy for three years, was treated for a minor head injury and was released.
Norris had been arrested May 1 on 10 counts of violation of probation on original charges ranging from grand theft to burglary and trespassing; two counts of armed robbery; and one count each of aggravated battery, giving false name to a law enforcement officer and conspiracy.
Copyright 2010 Lakeland Ledger Publishing Corporation