CROWN HEIGHTS — A handcuffed 19-year-old robbery suspect escaped a police vehicle while being transported to court and sparked a four-hour manhunt, the NYPD said.
Dwayne McCleary, 19, is expected to be charged with robbery and escaping custody after he bolted from the vehicle at Atlantic and Troy avenues just before 8 p.m. Tuesday night, police said.
He was being driven to Brooklyn's Central Booking to await his court arraignment.
The teen was taken to the NYPD's 77th Precinct and was expected be taken into court Thursday to face robbery charges for an earlier theft in Crown Heights, police said.
The details of how he was able to escape were not immediately available.
Police launched a search team, including helicopters, and cordoned off the area before finding him in the Weeksville public houses on Dean Street shortly after 11 p.m.
The 19-year-old is the second teen to escape from police in Crown Heights this year. In June, a 16-year-old farebeater escaped from the NYPD’s Transit District 32, then turned himself into the 75th Precinct four hours later.
