One unsafe man who’d escaped a Washington state psychiatric hospital is now back in custody. Garver was taken into custody without incident. Deputies and federal marshals in eastern Washington expanded patrols Friday, April 8, 2016, and handed out flyers.
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The other patient, Mark Adams, 58, was recaptured soon after but Garver managed to elude authorities for 48 hours until his capture in Spokane, about 287 miles (462 km) from the hospital, state police said.
Lakewood, Washington, police described both Anthony Garver, 28, and Mark Alexander Adams, 58, as “dangerous”.
Garver and Adams were sent to the psychiatric hospital in Lakewood from Snohomish County on court-ordered, 180-day commitments to be treated for mental illness.
On Wednesday evening, Garver and Mark Alexander Adams were able to open the window and get out of the facility. The two crawled out a window in a locked, lower-security unit of the hospital. Garver, who was charged with torturing a woman to death but found too mentally ill for trial, is still at large.
Wednesday’s brazen escape by the two men wasn’t the first time someone escaped from Western State Hospital, Q13 Fox reported. Cameras caught Garver purchasing the ticket under the alias of John Anderson, Lakewood police Lt. Chris Lawler said.
Garver, 28, had been known to local authorities well before his latest escape, because he had allegedly tied a woman to a bed with electric cords, then stabbed her to death in 2013.
“There seems to be a pattern here, and the State of Washington needs to get a clue”.
“CMS was aware of all three of these situations, and can not comment on how they will affect Western State Hospital’s federal funding”, Chickering said in an email.
On Friday, the hospital revealed another patient was missing.
The patient left the facility with an escorted group but didn’t return. Officials say the patient left the center unnoticed through an exit door; the patient’s whereabouts are unknown. The incidents did not appear related.
Garver was under more restrictive conditions than the other patient missing on Friday from the hospital.
A K-9 unit helped track Garver, who was found hiding under a pile of debris in a wooded area, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said at a news conference Friday night. Authorities have used SWAT teams, dogs and helicopters to search for him. He was found too mentally ill for trial.
State officials would not explain why Garver, an ex-felon with a history of running from authorities, was kept in a lower-security area. Garver and Adams were not placed in the high-security unit because a judge granted a state request to hold them as a danger to themselves or others after treatment failed to restore their ability to understand the criminal charges against them.
The state Department of Social and Health Services, which oversees Western State Hospital, said, “We are relieved he has been found and thank law enforcement for all their tremendous work in capturing him”. Hundreds of employees have suffered concussions, fractures and cuts in assaults by patients, resulting in $6 million in workers compensation claims between 2013 and 2015.
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A patient with a history of violent behavior choked and punched a mental health technician on March 26, according to an internal report.
