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Man escapes from Warren police cruiser for 13 minutes
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A city man escaped from a Warren police cruiser early Wednesday after being arrested on a domestic-violence charge, but it only got him 13 minutes of freedom.
Tyrei M. Farley, 20, of South Street, was arraigned Wednesday in Warren Municipal Court on charges of domestic violence, felony escape and falsification.
Not-guilty pleas were entered, and he is being held in the county jail without eligibility to make bond. If convicted on the escape charge, a felony, he could get up to a year in prison.
Police arrested Farley at 12:49 a.m. after his former girlfriend said Farley assaulted her at their South Street apartment, where she had gone to retrieve personal items.
Before Patrolman Richard Kovach’s cruiser reached the Trumbull County jail with Farley in the back, Farley reached a nearby button that controls a rear window.
Farley was handcuffed behind his back.
Next, Farley reached between the bars on the window and opened his door from the outside. He fled just as the cruiser was pulling up to the side entrance to the jail. He ran away, his hands still cuffed behind his back.
Kovach made a radio call indicating that Farley had escaped. Fellow officers located Farley 13 minutes later a short distance away and took him back into custody.
Capt. Jeff Cole, commander of the Warren Police road-patrol division, said he re-enacted the escape Wedneday and is amazed someone could do what Farley did.
Cole sat in the rear of the cruiser and could not open the door with the outside handle even without handcuffs on.
“How he did it, I don’t know. It’s amazing,” Cole said.
When asked whether Kovach violated policy by not locking the suspect’s window control, Cole said Kovach did not.
“There are no misdeeds by the officer,” Cole said.
There are situations – the safety of the inmate in hot conditions, for example – in which it would be better for the window lock to be off, Cole said.
He has seen the dash cam video showing the escape and will continue to “look at what to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
A similar situation happened in Liberty in January 2017 when Garell T. Williams, 24, escaped from a Liberty police cruiser while officers were investigating a weapon and other items in Williams’ car.
In that case, police left the window part way down when they walked away from the cruiser. Williams was able to get a hand out of his handcuffs and open the door from the outside. Williams stayed on the loose five days and later got 18 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, cocaine possession and escaping from police.