Bend 19-year-old accused of breaking into gun store, stealing rifle later jumps handcuffed from ambulance, is caught
(Update: Adding name, initial charges)
He told jail staff he swallowed 10 fentanyl pills, was on way to hospital
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A 19-year-old Bend resident who broke into a gun store and stole a rifle was arrested Monday at a southeast Bend transient camp, then jumped out of an ambulance while handcuffed and ran while being taken to the hospital after swallowing 10 fentanyl pills but was recaptured, police said.
Police responded shortly after 9 a.m. Monday to a reported break-in at Hammer Down Firearms on NE Third Street, Bend Police Communications Manager Sheila Miller said.
Officers arrived to find a broken window at the front of the store and a gun on the floor, Miller said, noting that the window had bars on it.
Employees determined a Noveske short-barreled rifle, a suppressor and a “green dot” sight were missing from the store. Miller said surveillance video showed the 19-year-old, identified as Thomas Cole Dillard III, breaking the window with bolt cutters and reaching in through the bars to take the rifle around 2:35 a.m.
Around 4 p.m., officers found Dillard at a transient camp in the area of Southeast Second and Aune streets, Miller said. He had a backpack and bolt cutters on the ground next to him, she said. Officers recovered the gun, along with fentanyl, from the backpack.
After officers took Dillard to the Deschutes County Jail, he told jail staff he’d swallowed 10 fentanyl pills, Miller said, so officers asked paramedics to take him, handcuffed, to St. Charles Bend. An officer followed the ambulance.
On their way to the hospital, near NE 27th Street and Rosemary Drive, Dillard escaped from the ambulance and ran east across 27th Street, his hands still cuffed behind his back, Miller said.
The officer following the ambulance got out of his patrol car and ran after Dillard. When he tried to jump a fence on NE Atherton Court, the officer was able to take him into custody, Miller said.
He was arrested on charges of first-degree theft, second-degree burglary and criminal mischief, possession of a prohibited firearm, second-degree escape and criminal trespass and initiating a false report -- the later because police have probable cause to believe he had not swallowed fentanyl pills but that he claimed so to avoid being booked into jail, Miller said.
Dillard was set for formal arraignment Tuesday afternoon on eight initial charges from the DA’s office: two counts of first-degree theft and second-degree charges of burglary, escape, criminal mischief and criminal trespass, as well as two counts of possession of prohibited firearms or a silencer.
