Hunting former police chief who escaped from prison in Arkansas

The search for a former Arkansas police chief, convicted of rape and murder, continues after he escaped from prison on Sunday.

Grant Hardin was the head of the police at Gateway, Arkansas, a small town of several hundred inhabitants at the Missouri state border – about four months in 2016, according to the Associated Press.

The State Department of Correction said on social media that he had fled the prison in the northern central unit in Calico Rock around 15:40 (20:40 GMT) on Sunday, where he was deprived of 2017.

The department added that Hardin was no longer in his prison uniform and “wears improvised clothing designed to mimic order enforcement” when he escapes.

56 -year -old Hardin remains free. The Ministry of Corrections has called for each with information to “contact local law enforcement” “immediately”.

The department told the BBC that “multiple agencies” were involved in demand.

The Pea Ridge Police Department has also reported a signal on social media, saying that Hardin “has numerous ties and family in our area.”

They warned the public not to approach him, saying he was “considered armed and dangerous.”

The Izard Country sheriff’s service told its community to “remain vigilant, to lock the doors of the house and the vehicle and to report any suspicious activity.”

The American Marshals Eastern Arkansas Fugitive Special Group also helps in search efforts, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The former prosecutor, who helped to put Hardin behind bars, described him as a “sociopath”, local KHBS 40/29 News reported.

“The prison is not full of people who are all bad. It’s full of many people who just do bad things. Grant is different,” said former Benton County Prosecutor Nathan Smith in front of the station.

Grant Hardin pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of another person-after fatally shooting 59-year-old James Appleton in 2017. He was sentenced to 30 years.

Appleton works at the city’s water department. He was shot dead and killed while talking to his son -in -law, then mayor of the door Andrew Tilman, on February 23, 2017, according to the partner of the US partner of the BBC CBS News.

Later, police found the body of G -N Appleton in a car.

As he was serving time for the murder of G -N Appleton, evidence of DNA, connecting Hardin, appeared with the long unauthorized rape of Amy Harrison in Frank Tiliri’s elementary school in Rogers, Arkansas, in November 1997.

According to a CBS News branch, D -Ja Harrison was raped under firing while she left the classroom to go to the bathroom.

Hardin pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 50 years.

Before becoming the head of the Gateway police, Hardin served as an officer at the Eureka Springs Police Department (ESPD).

He resigned in October 1996 after being informed by ESPD chief Earl Haat that he would be fired to counterfeit a police report, according to CBS News 5news.

“I would have stopped it, but he resigned and he was caught lying in a police report,” Haat reports.

Chief Hayat also said he was not surprised by Hardin’s conviction, saying to 5news: “He has just always been a very violent, excessive man and has had a really bad temper.”

Cheryl Tilman, Mayor of Gateway, Arkansas, told local newsletter KATV that she was worried that Hardin would come after her and her family.

“It’s kind of scary,” Tilman said. “I don’t think he’ll be lively.”

His escape from prison comes just weeks after an unrelated incident, in which 10 prisoners burst out of prison in New Orleans, Louisiana, after breaking the wall behind the toilet.