A search continues for a prisoner who escaped from the North County Correctional Facility early Saturday morning. At about 4:30 a.m. inmate Dewey West was discovered missing from the facility, and a manhunt was mounted involving helicopters, dogs, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies on horseback and the California Highway Patrol. Also involved were patrol deputies and detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau.
West, 30, who was in custody on a charge of burglary, is described as a black man, about 210 pounds, 6-foot-6-inches tall, with black hair and brown eyes.
A sheriff’s deputy in Los Angeles said West, assigned to kitchen duty, was accounted for at 4:15 a.m., during an inmate count.
At 4:30 a.m., an alarm sounded, apparently triggered by an electronic monitoring device worn by inmates, and a search began.
As of early Saturday evening, the search continued in areas farther away from the North County Correctional Facility.
No information was available about how he escaped from the facility.
This is not the first escape from the NCCF on record. Last year, three male prisoners escaped from a laundry at the North County Correctional Facility.