GARY, Ind. (WGN) — Police in Northwest Indiana released surveillance footage Tuesday after a murder suspect escaped from an SUV in a McDonald’s drive-thru.
Police said an agent from REDI Transports was driving 22-year-old Leon Taylor from Texas to face a murder charge at the time of the escape. Taylor was wearing a belly chain with handcuffs and a leg brace.
In the video, he escapes from the SUV as the driver is stopped in a McDonald’s drive-thru. He somehow gets free from a leg brace and takes off across the street.
“After watching this video, I am highly disturbed and disappointed by the procedures the private transportation driver used during the transfer of this suspect to our jail,” said Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr.
Taylor was wearing a grey hoodie with an additional black hoodie underneath, black Puma tennis shoes and black jeans.
He is 6 feet tall, 162 pounds, has hazel eyes and brown hair. Taylor is known to frequent Gary, East Chicago and Hammond.
“After acquiring these surveillance videos, Lake County Sheriff’s Department investigators were able to reveal conflicting statements made to our officers by the driver,” Martinez said. “This driver initially told our officers the suspect jumped out of a window, but the video clearly shows him exiting through a door to the vehicle.”
Martinez said “an extensive review of the case” is underway.
“I find it appalling that REDI Transports failed to use appropriate caution and may have put the public at risk,” he said.
Anyone with information on Taylor’s whereabouts is asked to call 911 immediately. He is considered to be dangerous.