By April Baumgarten
Grand Forks Herald
WINGER, Minn. — After a six-hour manhunt, authorities have captured an inmate they say escaped custody and stole a law enforcement vehicle in Crookston.
Forum News Service learned late Wednesday night that Tony Mitchell Krueger, 20, of Bagley has been taken back into custody. The Polk County Sheriff’s Department and other agencies spent Wednesday afternoon and night searching for the inmate near Winger, where they believed he was hiding. Sheriff Barb Erdman said Krueger was taken into custody peacefully and no one was injured.
Krueger escaped custody at about 1:20 p.m. Wednesday in Crookston from officers with the Northwest Regional Correctional Center as they were transporting him, according to a news release. The inmate overpowered a correctional officer and stole a jail transport vehicle, according to the news release. The Minnesota State Patrol later located the vehicle near Erskine, a Polk County town about 30 miles east of Crookston, and a high-speed chase ensued, law enforcement said.
The trooper used a pursuit-intervention maneuver to end the chase, but Krueger fled on foot, the release said. The inmate was last seen running into a soybean field along U.S. Highway 59 near Winger, about 40 miles southeast of Crookston, the release said.
Medical professionals checked the inmate before officers transported him back to jail.
Details on how or exactly where Krueger was captured were not released.
Erdman said Krueger likely would face multiple charges in the incident.
Krueger has a criminal history that includes domestic assault, unlawful possession of pharmacy drugs and traffic violations. He was being held at the Northwest Regional Correctional Center on charges of fleeing, obstructing a legal process and failure to appear, the facility said.