Early on Thursday morning, a murder suspect managed to escape from a Brooklyn station house after pulling the ol' "I need to use the bathroom" trick and outrunning three cops. Cops saved a little face by re-arresting Brandon Santana yesterday in the Bronx.
Santana, 24, is believed to be involved in the August 2010 murder of Alexander Santiago, who was beaten with a crowbar and stabbed, in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He was taken into custody on Wednesday night and questioned at the 78th Precinct on 6th Avenue between Bergen and Dean Streets. Santana was in a holding cell until an officer allowed him out to use the bathroom—and the unhandcuffed suspect "shoved the officer, knocking him to the ground, and ran straight out of the station house." Another cop tried to chase him, but hurt himself, and then a lieutenant couldn't keep up.
Santana was found inside 3930 Third Avenue in the Bronx. The Daily News reports, "Police sources say task force members traced phone calls to Santana’s friend — a security guard — on Third Ave. near E. 173rd St. in Crotona at about 3:15 p.m. When cops asked the friend’s wife if she recognized a picture of Santana, she pointed to the bedroom, NYPD top spokesman Paul Browne said. The officers ultimately found Santana hiding behind the door."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called the situation "anomalous." DNAinfo reports he said, "We don’t accept that, and disciplinary action certainly follows in most of these situations. But just the sheer volume in mass that we have, sometimes people don’t comprehend that." Exactly—which is why there's another prisoner who escaped custody in the Bronx!
