Daley security guard captures escaped murderer
'I heard a number of cars . . . so I knew something was up,' mayor says
As Mayor Daley's family slept inside their southwestern Michigan vacation retreat, a member of the mayor's security team captured a convicted murderer about a block away Monday, holding the man -- one of three escapees from a maximum-security Indiana prison -- at gunpoint till police arrived.
Chicago Police Officer Michael Smith was sitting in his car near the mayor's home around 5 a.m. Monday when he looked in the rearview mirror and noticed two men who looked disoriented and disheveled, walking toward Lake Michigan, according to a statement issued by the mayor's office.
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"I immediately had a feeling something was wrong. I already had my guard up," said Smith, who had earlier been informed of the prison break and viewed pictures of the escapees on his BlackBerry.
"It was 5 o'clock in the morning, and these guys looked like they had been laying in wait somewhere," Smith said in the statement. "One of them had all these tattoos all over both his arms. Something clearly wasn't right."
Smith drove up to the men, drew his gun, identified himself as a Chicago Police officer and commanded them to stop, but they started running.
"I took off after them and was able to pull one of them down and pin him," Smith said. "Once I grabbed him, I verbally commanded him to calm down. I said a few more strongly worded things to convince him that he'd be much better off not struggling anymore. He clearly understood. I had my revolver on him."
At that point, a curious neighbor approached. Smith told him to "Get back in your house, lock all the doors and call the police," as he handcuffed Charles Smith, 48, one of three men discovered missing from the prison Sunday morning.
Mayor Daley was awake and heard the commotion.
"I heard a number of cars in the vicinity, so I knew something was up," Daley said.
Other Daley family members -- including his wife, Maggie, their daughter and son-in-law and their children -- were sleeping during the incident, which happened in Grand Beach, Mich., about a block from Daley's beachfront property.
"No one was harmed," Daley said. "No one was close to being harmed at all."
The escapee captured by Smith was convicted of murder in the 1990s, Grand Beach police Chief Dan Schroeder said. He was one of three men discovered missing Sunday from the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Ind., about 15 miles from Grand Beach.
The other man Smith saw is believed to be convicted murderer Mark Booher, 46, Schroeder said.
A third escapee, Lance Battreal, 45, was serving time for rape.
Daley said he was told the third man apparently was nearby and that it appeared Smith and Booher came near his home by chance.
Schroeder said it was the biggest incident in the quiet town since a multimillion-dollar home near Daley's summer house was torched in 2008. A letter sent days before the fire to Daley's office had threatened to torch his summer home in retaliation for the Chicago police killing a cougar in Roscoe Village.