By Cathianne Werner-Porterfield, Delaware State News
GEORGETOWN - The search for escaped convict Myron D. Price continued for a third day Thursday as reported sightings and tips continued to pour in.
During a Thursday morning press conference, Department of Correction commissioner Stanley W. Taylor said the primary focus on Price's possible whereabouts remains on Sussex County.
He would not divulge a specific area of the county, although DOC officers, along with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies continued to comb the Ellendale and Laurel areas on Thursday.
"This is new for us," Mr. Taylor said. "We are taking it very seriously."
Mr. Taylor said officials have reason to believe the 28-year-old prisoner from Ellendale is getting assistance from family and friends.
He said officials have been following up on calls Price made from a cellular phone.
Correction officials have received "dozens" of leads from the public, said Elizabeth Welch, a department spokeswoman.
Price escaped from DOC custody at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday when he bolted from a van in the parking lot of the Kent County Courthouse in Dover.
Price, who is serving an eight-year sentence for drug trafficking in Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown, was scheduled for trial on robbery and weapons charges in connection with robberies of two Kent County liquor stores.
If convicted of all charges, he could face 167 years in prison, according to Delaware's Truth in Sentencing statute.
Thomas Ridgely, a correction officers' union official, said Wednesday that the lack of a secured unloading area at the courthouse contributed to Price's escape.
He said other Delaware courthouses are equipped with secure unloading areas.
DOC officials said Price is considered dangerous and might be armed.
They are asking the public to not approach him if they think they see him, but to call police.
Price is described as black, 5-foot-7, with a scar on his nose and right wrist and tattoos on his chest and upper right arm.
Someone matching Price's description was spotted in a Royal Farms convenience store on U.S. 113 in Milford at about 10 a.m. Tuesday.
And a man matching Price's description allegedly attempted to shoot a Laurel police officer at about 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Mr. Taylor said DOC officials believe Price was spotted again Wednesday night.
He said local news media that arrived after hearing about the sighting may have spooked Price and "compromised the investigation."
Mr. Taylor, addressing media at the Sussex County Violation of Probation Center in Georgetown, would not give the location of that incident or the name of the media outlet.
Suspicion that Price might be in the Laurel area pulled the Laurel Police Department into the investigation.
Laurel Chief Donald McGinty said officers from his department assisted in a door-to-door search of four apartment complexes in Laurel in an effort to find Price.
"We were out with them all day (Wednesday)," he said. "We knocked on 1,000 doors trying to get any information on this individual."
Mr. Taylor said the van-to-courthouse transfer of Price was "normal."
"We do 40,000 transports per year," he said. "This is the first escape in transport in our collective memory. We have had some break from an officer, but never get away."
He said nothing would indicate Price's escape could be blamed on the officers.
Mr. Taylor said that the correction officers that transported Price and were unable to apprehend him were "experts" whose sole task is to transport inmates.
Although Mr. Taylor said procedures were followed, DOC has still launched a "procedural" investigation into the matter.
Among the questions targeted by the investigation is when and how Price was able to unlock the leg irons and handcuffs he wore for transport.
"There is a strong indication that Price had some sort of very rough, rudimentary devices that enabled him to unlock the locks," Mr. Taylor said. "He then jammed them with paper and replaced them."
Mr. Taylor said this move by Price made it appear that his leg irons were secured, but when he fled from the door of the DOC van, the shackles fell away.
A correction officer, described by Mr. Taylor as "middle-aged," took chase after Price but was unable to capture him.
DOC officials Thursday refused to release the names of the two correction officers present during the escape.
Though the officer was armed, a procedure Mr. Taylor called "safe shot," forbade him from firing at Price to stop him.
"He began pursuit and drew his weapon, but then two individuals rounded the corner," he said.
Police said Price allegedly broke into a window of Wesley United Methodist Church's child care center on Loockerman Street, changed out of his orange prison jumpsuit and changed into blue jeans, a cream-colored shirt, a dark jacket and a wool cap.
Police believe Price then stole a 1990 Ford Econoline van from a construction site on North Street in Dover.
The van was found abandoned in Ellendale at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Shortly after Price's escape, police found a piece of wire that had been shaped into a handcuff key in the parking lot of the courthouse, Mr. Taylor said.
Interviews with inmates who also were transported in the van revealed that Price might have used other tools made from items such as a ballpoint pen and a television or radio antennae, he said.
DOC officials are urging the public to call 911 or the DOC at (302) 856-5790 if they have information about Price.
