Two teens accused of breaking out of Maine’s only youth prison were arrested and taken into custody Tuesday after crashing stolen cars, police say.
Police in Georgetown, Massachusetts, found the 16-year-old escapee around 5 a.m. Tuesday, after he crashed a Porsche that was reported stolen from Hampton, New Hampshire, earlier that morning, the Maine Department of Corrections said.
The second suspect, whom South Portland police identified as 18-year-old Davyn Flynn, of Portland, was found in Biddeford just before noon Tuesday after he drove a car stolen in Scarborough into a parked car.
The teens escaped from Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland on Friday night, prompting a multistate, multiagency manhunt. Immediately after the teens broke out, they stole a white Honda Civic in a “strong-armed” robbery at the Liberty Commons apartment complex around 7:30 p.m., police said. South Portland police issued arrest warrants for the teens Monday night, charging them with robbery, criminal threatening, assault and terrorizing.
Police said little about the manhunt for more than three days and have not released information about how the teens escaped.
A Biddeford police officer found Flynn a few blocks from the crash, Cpl. Jacob Wolterbeek said. Multiple witnesses to the crash said Flynn was driving a Dodge Magnum and was dressed in a black shirt and black pants, Wolterbeek said. Flynn originally gave a false name and date of birth, but the officer recognized him as the missing teen, Wolterbeek said.
Flynn will be transported to the Cumberland County Jail to be booked on the South Portland charges. He also was summonsed on charges of leaving the scene of a crash and operating without a license in Biddeford and faces other charges in Scarborough, though police there did not say what those charges are.
The 16-year-old is still in custody in Massachusetts, pending extradition, South Portland police said.
The Department of Corrections, which oversees Long Creek, has refused to answer questions about the breakout.
The unusual escape follows an attempted breakout in January, when nine boys armed with makeshift weapons got out of one of the prison’s buildings, but didn’t make it off the grounds. That prompted ongoing turmoil at Long Creek about staffing shortages, lack of services for staff and residents, as well as extended lockdown periods when residents are mostly confined to their rooms.
Sharon Craig, an attorney representing one of the teens who broke out, told the Press Herald in a phone interview Monday afternoon that she was concerned the incident would prompt more lockdowns and tighter security in an already overwhelmed facility.
And the head of the Maine Service Employees Association, the union representing Long Creek’s educational staff and supervisors, said the breakout was an outcome that staff members were worried about when they voiced concerns about being understaffed, underpaid and overworked.
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