The manhunt for escaped convict Alberto Morales ended early Saturday in a hail of gunfire as the fugitive was cornered by police and shot and killed in a small town in Texas.
Authorities said Morales, who had somehow slipped out of his handcuffs since escaping police Monday, lunged at the officers with wooden sticks, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Morales, 41, had been on the run since overpowering a Miami-Dade police detective, stab him with his eyeglasses and disappear from a Walmart in a Dallas suburb. Two Miami-Dade detectives had been escorting Morales, a violent sex offender, to a Las Vegas prison at the time of his escape.
“Obviously, we are very relieved,’’ Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Genaro “Chip” Iglesias said Saturday. “We are relieved that he will not be able to hurt anybody else.’’
The detective, Jaime Pardinas, survived but suffered a collapsed lung.
Iglesias said he had just returned from Dallas about 1:30 a.m. Saturday when he got the calls that Morales has been killed. He and Miami-Dade police Deputy Director Juan Perez flew to Dallas on Thursday. Hundreds of law enforcement officers, including about a dozen from Miami, had been hunting Morales for days.
Morales’ capture came shortly after midnight in a residential lakefront community in Grapevine, Texas, north of Dallas.
Police descended on a home, responding to a burglary call. Men’s clothes and jewelry had been taken from the residence, police said in a statement.
The neighborhood was just three miles from the Walmart where Morales was last seen, fleeing Miami-Dade police detectives.
Morales, who was on Texas’ 10-most wanted list, was spotted in a wooded area where he tried to flee but was killed by a fugitive task force which had been tracking him for days, said Grapevine police Sgt. Robert Eberling.
He did not immediately release details, saying that more information would become public later Saturday.
Morales, a schizophrenic with a long history of violence, was being transported back to Las Vegas Monday to finish a 30-years to life prison term for sexual assault. Miami-Dade police had extradited him four years ago from Las Vegas to be tried on rape charges. He was convicted of sexually assaulting and kidnapping two Miami women in 2003.
Morales’ Nevada attorney, Marc Saggese said his client suffered a severe brain injury when he was hit in the head with a baseball bat when he was 17 and told him that he has heard voices ever since.
“He said that ever since that attack and subsequent surgeries he has struggling demons in his head,” Saggese told The Associated Press.
While in a jail medical ward, Morales mutilated his genitals and scrawled words in blood on the wall. He underwent a psychological examination by doctors at a Nevada state mental hospital in Sparks, but he was found competent to stand trial, the attorney said.
Two Miami-Dade detectives, Pardinas and David Carrero, were assigned to transport Morales via commercial plane on Monday. However, when the plane made a scheduled layover in Houston, Morales was kicked off because he had been causing a disturbance by banging his head against the seats in front and behind him.
At that point, the detectives launched “Plan B” which was to transport him 15,000 miles to Las Vegas in a rental vehicle. With Morales in handcuffs attached to a belly belt, they loaded the 5-foot-7 convict into a rented SUV, headed north toward Dallas, where they planned to stop at the airport to pick up another Miami-Dade detective who was going to assist him. The plan, which was authorized by supervisors, required a third detective for a ground transport.
Pardinas and Carrero arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport ahead of their colleague so they decided to drive to a nearby Walmart to use the restroom. About 11 p.m. Carrero entered the store, with Pardinas in the SUV guarding Morales.
Suddenly Morales lunged at Pardinas and stabbed him several times in the neck with the sharp end of his broken eyeglass frame. Pardinas, still reeling in pain, called 911, his breathing labored, as he described Morales. The fugitive was also captured on the store’s surveillance cameras running through the parking lot.
Iglesias said a thorough review of is under way.
“Regardless of what happened, it’s clear he escaped so something went wrong.’’
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
Miami-Dade fugitive shot dead in Texas
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Miami-Dade fugitive shot dead in Texas
