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Schizophrenic Man Found After Escaping Psychiatric Facility, Police Say

 Clifford Brown was found after he hopped a chain-link fence at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center Tuesday, police said.
Clifford Brown was found after he hopped a chain-link fence at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center Tuesday, police said.
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Composite with OMH and NYPD

QUEENS — A schizophrenic man hopped a fence and escaped a Queens Village psychiatric facility Tuesday afternoon, months after security there was beefed up following the escape of a convicted killer, officials said.

Clifford Brown, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, hopped a chain-link fence at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, 79-25 Winchester Blvd., and raced westward toward Alley Pond Park about 2 p.m., the NYPD said.

Brown was found some time before 2:44 a.m. Thursday, police said.

His escape came after the Office of Mental Health, which oversees Creedmoor, said it would ramp up security there after convicted killer Raymond Morillo slipped past guards in January.

Morillo, who served 14 years for a 1999 manslaughter, pretended to be one of his friends and used his ID pass to dupe security guards, officials said.

He was re-arrested in Tennessee days later and Creedmoor planned to "add a separate and distinct layer of verification apart from the identification passes provided at entrances," Benjamin Rosen, a spokesman for the facility, said at the time.

Rosen didn't elaborate about the procedures because of security concerns.

The Office of Mental Health did not immediately comment on the latest escape.

A third man also managed to slip the cracks of Creedmoor on March 4, police said. He was found the same day.