MANHATTAN — A 20-year-old shoplifter escaped from a police vehicle on the way to the First Precinct but was caught hours later in a Brooklyn group home, police said.
Magsayo Cruz, 20, was caught stealing jeans from a Gap store at 750 Broadway at nearly 8 p.m. and was enroute to the First Precinct with police when he escaped into the subway system, according to police and the New York Daily News.
Cruz was found at 12:30 a.m. inside a group home, at 319 42nd St., which he also listed as his address, police said.
He was charged with petit larceny and escape, police said.
On Friday, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced that two officers had been suspended in connection with the escape, ABC 7 reported.
Cruz is the latest prisoner to give police the slip this year.
In the summer, three prisoners escaped from three different precincts in Harlem. In October, a handcuffed prisoner, Gerald Brooks, 39, got away from officers in the 75th Precinct.
"They are an embarrassment to themselves, to their unit and to the department," Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said in October about the officers who lost the captives.
"I'm not going to tolerate it."
