Suspect Flees OK County Courthouse, Deputy Injured In Takedown

A suspect made a run for it at the Oklahoma County courthouse and ended up in a takedown.

The deputy is recovering after tackling the man, and the foot pursuit was caught on camera.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office said David Knight's run for freedom started around 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Knight showed up on his own for a court hearing, and the judge informed him he had an outstanding warrant for drug possession.

"He was going to be taken into custody and at that point he decided he wasn't going to be taken into custody and decided to bolt," Mark Myers with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office said.

Knight booked it out of the courtroom and lucked out when the elevator doors opened right on cue.

Surveillance cameras tracked him from the seventh floor down to the first floor.

2/18/2014 Related Story: Suspect Arrested After Running From OK Courthouse During Hearing

Meanwhile, the judge alerted deputies and described Knight's clothing.

Deputies then spotted Knight in the lobby, and they chased him out the doors, across the street, toward the intersection of Robert S. Kerr and N. Hudson.

The capture happened outside of the view of any surveillance cameras. The deputy caught Knight and tackled him to the ground. In the process, the deputy broke his shoulder, chipped his tooth and scraped up his arms and legs.

"Not only was he injured in the process, but with a broken shoulder, he was still able to get this individual into custody, so the system worked," Myers explained.

Incidents like this apparently happen more than we realize at the courthouse.

However, Myers said deputies do a lot of basic physical training each year, learning how to get people into custody and various defense tactics, so suspects are rarely successful.

"You might be able to get out of the courtroom, you might be able to get down to the first floor, but more than likely, you're not going to be able to get away," Myers added.

The deputy has been with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office for four and a half years.