Local News

4 Hurt In Attempted Tarrant County Jail Escape

Inmate Accused In FW Birthday Party Drive-By Among 3 Who Try To Escape

FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ― Three inmates attempting to escape from the Tarrant County Jail injured two guards and two maintenance workers, Tarrant County authorities said.

Officials say five inmates were being escorted to an exercise area by two detention officers, one male and one female, when three of the inmates attempted what is believed to be a planned attack.

Sheriff Dee Anderson called the escape attempt a "half-baked idea". "Apparently these three were working together and apparently had hatched some very poorly planned escape attempt," he said.

One of the inmates, Erick Davila, was accused of fatally shooting a woman and her 5-year-old granddaughter during a birthday party in April.

James Dwayne Edwards and Herschel Jerome Hurd were the two other inmates who tried to escape.

At least one in the trio had a "shank" and attacked the two detention officers about 8:30 a.m. at the entrance to an eighth floor recreation area of the jail's Belknap unit at 350 W. Belknap, just above Fort Worth Police Department Headquarters.

According to jail staff, after the assault near the gym, the inmates ran toward a set of elevators. That's where they ran into the female detention officer and also the county maintenance workers.

The female guard was beaten and had cuts and bruises to her head. One of the maintenance workers was punched in the nose. The other maintenance worker was able to call for help.

"Once they were faced with more guards and people their own size they gave up - as cowardly people tend to do," Anderson said.

Sheriff's spokesman Terry Grisham says the inmates are, "now in custody and they'll be under severe guard."
 
The 21-year-old Davila has been charged with capital murder for the April 6 birthday party shooting of Annette Stevenson and her granddaughter, Queshawn Stevenson. Both of them died from their injures.

Davila is charged with murder for the shooting of a 37-year-old man. The man's death is unrelated to the Stevensons' death, but did occur that same month.

Edwards was being held on charges of aggravated robbery and evading arrest. Hurd was being held on aggravated robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm charges.

Officials have labeled the crime as an attempted escape because witnesses heard the men say: "We gotta get out of here" and "Where do these keys go?"

The inmates were not handcuffed or shackled and were inside the gym at the time of the crime, officials said.

The two correctional officers and one of the workers were taken by ambulance to the hospital. Another maintenance worker was treated at the scene and released.
 
Male correctional officer Michael Thompson, 41, was treated and released from Harris Methodist Hospital. Officials say all of the workers hurt during the incident had non-life threatening injuries.

Anderson says there was no danger to the public at anytime. "The chance to get away was zero. There was no chance for them, in this instance, to get away. There was no where to go."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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