Maryland – Howard County Police are continuing to search for a prisoner who escaped during a transport for a psychiatric evaluation to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in the 8400 block of Dorsey Run Road in Jessup.
On Friday April 28, David M. Watson, 28, was being transported to the hospital by two guards from the Wicomico County Detention Center when he escaped custody and fled into a wooded area. The guards arrived in a van with Watson, who was the only prisoner, around 9:40 a.m. When they parked the van and opened the back door, Watson pushed a guard to the ground and ran into the woods. Investigators found handcuffs and a waist chain near the van.
Police received a call at 9:46 a.m. with a report of the escape, and initiated a search with K-9 units, helicopters, and uniform, plainclothes and tactical officers. Howard County Police are being assisted by Maryland State Police, Anne Arundel County Police Department and the Marshals Warrant Fugitive Taskforce.
Watson is described as a white male, 5 feet eight inches tall and 140 pounds. He was last seen in the woods in the area of Dorsey Run Road and is wearing all white clothing, with no markings or emblems. Police found two articles of his clothing in the woods. There have been no reported sightings. Investigators confirmed that Watson did not have access to a weapon, as both of the guards’ handguns were in lock boxes inside the van. There is no indication whether this was a planned or impulsive escape.
Watson is serving a sentence of more than 100 years in a detention center in Delaware for attempted murder. He also has been charged in Wicomico County for attempted murder of police officers. In that case, he was scheduled for a psychiatric evaluation at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center on Friday. Wicomico County Detention Center guards picked him up from Delaware yesterday, kept him overnight, and then transported him to Jessup this morning.
Anyone who sees a suspicious subject matching Watson’s description should call 911.
Additional information will be released as it becomes available.