A 20-year-old felon wearing an orange jumpsuit, a belly chain and handcuffs escaped Tuesday morning while being transported to Tumwater Municipal Court, according to police.
Dylan Page allegedly evaded a jail transport officer and fled on foot about 11 a.m. after exiting a van with a group of other prisoners outside the Tumwater Police Department on Israel Road.
Page “fled on foot southbound through the City Hall lawn toward Israel Road SW,” court papers state. Witnesses later reported seeing him fleeing east on Israel Road.
Page enjoyed about a half-hour of freedom before he was re-arrested, hiding in a friend’s bedroom several blocks from the police station, court papers state.
Tumwater High School, Tumwater Middle School and several other Tumwater schools and day cares were locked down after Page escaped, Detective Jen Kolb said.
Kolb said that during a large police search, she questioned a man outside a residence on Israel Road. The man “chuckled and said no,” when Kolb asked him if he had seen anyone run through his yard.
However, when the man saw police combing the area, he called police and turn his friend in, according to court papers.
The man “said it was his reaction to cover for Page and lie, but one he saw how many police officers or ‘the calvary’ as he put it, had saturated the area, he decided he had better tell someone …”
Kolb said she cited the friend with rendering criminal assistance, a misdemeanor.
During a court hearing Wednesday, a Thurston County Superior Court judge set Page’s new bail at $15,000.
Page, who has a conviction for stealing a vehicle, was being taken to court from the Thurston County Jail to clear up a Tumwater warrant for driving with a suspended license.
At the time of Tuesday’s alleged escape, Page was being held at the Thurston County Jail awaiting the disposition of a separate pending charge of theft of a motor vehicle.
Jeremy Pawloski: 360-754-5445
jpawloski@theolympian.com
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