Handcuffed suspect escaped from locked cruiser in Ormond Beach, police say

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A 19-year-old man was able to escape from a locked police cruiser while handcuffed thanks to a barred, but open, back window, the Ormond Beach Police Department said.

There are bars on the windows of police cruisers, but they’re there to keep people from kicking out the glass, the department said.

The man in the cruiser, Jarod Stacy, was able to slip his handcuffed hands through the bars and open the door from the outside, officers said.

The arresting officer, Benita Renell, told investigators she heard a noise and thought Stacy had hit his head. But when she looked back, she saw him getting out of the car.

“He was able to get his handcuffs around front and he reached out between the bars, pulled the door handle up and when the door came open, he fled,” Ormond Beach police spokesman Keith Walker said.

Stacy was arrested on a domestic violence charge after his girlfriend accused him of shoving her and pointing a BB gun at her friend at the San Marco Apartment Complex Wednesday.

Stacy was able to get away from police, but after searching through the night, officers found him sleeping in a car at the apartment complex where he was originally arrested.

The department will be investigating how Stacy was able to escape and will make changes to prevent it from happening again.

“Anything like this will be looked on as a learning experience since he was captured and no one got hurt,” Walker, said.

The department had not determined if Renell violated any protocols that may have led to Stacy’s escape.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

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