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Md. inmate armed with knife takes detention center worker hostage in attempt to escape

The inmate grabbed a knife and took a kitchen employee hostage; A detention officer was able to disarm the inmate quickly and took him back into custody

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There were no injuries reported, police said.

Anne Arundel County

By Luke Parker
The Capital, Annapolis, Md.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A 35-year-old inmate armed with a knife attempted to escape from the Jennifer Road Detention Center in Annapolis Thursday morning, according to the Anne Arundel County Police Department.

The escape attempt, which a detention officer stopped in less than a minute, came two days after Richard Daniel Price was arrested in Baltimore and charged with theft. He was accused of shoplifting a 48-count box of M&M’s from a 7-Eleven store along Ritchie Highway.

In a news release Friday, county police wrote Price entered an unoccupied office in the kitchen area. Grabbing a knife, he encountered two kitchen employees and took one of them hostage. As the other staff member ran for help, police said Price and the employee made their way toward an exit. A detention officer confronted the inmate, disarming him quickly and taking him back into custody.

There were no injuries reported Thursday, police said, and Price was charged with first- and second-degree assault, as well as reckless endangerment, theft, malicious destruction of property, attempted escape and possessing a weapon while confined in a detention facility.

Court records show Thursday’s incident was not the first time Price attempted to escape from or confront law enforcement.

In 2009, Price pleaded guilty to second-degree assault of a corrections officer in Washington County. More recently, in January, the Baltimore man was charged with second-degree escape in Carrol County after he “walked off” from a court-ordered substance abuse treatment program. According to charging documents, the program was part of his probation following a 2016 conviction for conspiracy to commit burglary.

With several theft arrests and convictions on his record, Price had abandoned another treatment program in Baltimore in September 2021 and was similarly charged with second-degree escape. He was found guilty two months later and released from jail after being credited for time served.

A preliminary hearing for Price’s most recent escape attempt is scheduled in district court for July 5.

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