Associated Press
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Investigators say an inmate accused of shooting two deputies, killing one, in an Iowa jail escape somehow managed to unlock his shackles inside a transport van.
Court records presented Wednesday at 24-year-old Wesley Correa-Carmenaty’s initial court hearing say he was in handcuffs and leg shackles May 1 when he was taken from a courthouse to the Pottawattamie County Jail. But he had unlocked them by the time the van reached the jail.
Police say a struggle ensued between Correa-Carmenaty and the deputies, and that Correa-Carmenaty managed to grab one’s gun. Police say he shot Deputy Mark Burbridge in the head and Deputy Pat Morgan in the abdomen before taking both deputies’ guns, ammunition and the keys to the van. Burbridge died; Morgan is recovering.
Correa-Carmenaty was recaptured in Omaha, Nebraska.