MONROE, Wash. — A man who escaped a minimum security prison in Monroe is back in custody.
Authorities report Samuel Kimble escaped just before 11 p.m. Thursday and officials didn’t know he went missing until 3:30 a.m. Friday.
Authorities reported that Kimble, 25, was gone from the minimum security unit of the Monroe Correctional Complex for about 12 hours when police picked him up about 18 miles away at the Lynnwood Transit Center. The Department of Corrections (DOC) said it was still unclear on Friday afternoon where he was going.
Chris Wright with the DOC said staff realized Kimble was missing from the facility around 3:30 a.m. while doing a formal count; however, surveillance footage later revealed he had left hours earlier.
Wright told KOMO News that at the early stages of the investigation, it was too soon to know whether Kimble acted alone in his escape, or if he had help.
Staff put the complex into lockdown and notified law enforcement and nearby schools.
“I was definitely nervous when I went out to check my truck just a while ago,” neighbor Thomas Phillips told KOMO News. “I think [the DOC] definitely should figure out what happened. So yeah, learn from the mistake.”
“Escapes in general from inside the perimeter are relatively rare statewide,” Wright stated.
KOMO News covered the last prisoner escape from this facility two years ago. Officials report that the suspect broke into an office to steal the keys to a staff member’s truck and fled. He was arrested in Seattle days later.
The DOC reports tips from the public helped lead law enforcement to the transit station in Lynnwood, where they took Kimble into custody.
“What kind of safety protocols might be changing as a result of this escape?” KOMO News asked.
“We’ll do a critical incident review to figure out how exactly he escaped, by what method, and if any adjustments need to be made, we’ll make them then,” Wright responded.
Kimble had injuries from the fence line during his escape, officials said.
He had only about seven months left on his 27-month sentence for an assault.
The DOC is starting its critical incident review, and it doesn’t have a timeline just yet for when that will be finished, a spokesperson confirmed. There are currently 1,407 people at Monroe Correctional Complex and 259 of those are in the minimum-security unit, according to staff.
Kimble is going back to the Monroe Correctional Complex, where he will be held in an intensive management unit with higher security, while he awaits trial on escape charges. He could face steep fines and additional years of jail time.