By By Robbie Byrd, News Editor
Two inmates took a short-lived joy ride Tuesday afternoon.
Both were captured less than an hour and only a few miles from the prison's site.
Bradley Harrison Trawick, 20, and Chad Lee Wilson, 21, were taken back to J.K. Fountain Correctional Center after the two stole a truck from the facilities vocational trade mechanics shop, rammed through the prison's front gate and crashed the truck into a creek, fleeing on foot.
At around 1:54 p.m. Tuesday, the tower guard notified officers that the two had escaped through the gate and that the officer had fired several times at the truck.
Sgt. Byron Dunn and officers James English and Jeff Byrd followed the truck in Department of Corrections vehicles until it crashed into Big Escambia Creek.
Ferrell said it is unclear why the two men ran the truck into the creek.
Dog Wardens Andy Braddock and Donnie Macks released search dogs down the creek bank, and the Trawick and Wilson were apprehended nearly 30 minutes later at 2:43 p.m.
Trawick is serving a 38-year sentence for first degree burglary and attempted murder. Wilson is serving a 20-year sentence for murder, first and third degree burglary and discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle or home.
Trawick was convicted in the Mobile and Balwdin county circuit court, and Wilson had been convicted in the Lee and Russell County circuit court.
Ferrell said that the truck's keys had been left in the ignition while it was being repaired at the vocational center's mechanics center. One of the escapee's had been working on the vehicle and had knowledge that the vehicle was repaired, he said.
Officers with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, 21st Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force, Flomaton Police Department and Atmore Police Department assisted at the scene.