Ex-Arkansas police chief, serving time for murder and rape, escapes prison
Grant Hardin, 56, escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, Arkansas, at 2:55 p.m. local time on May 25 wearing a "makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement," according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections. The former Gateway, Arkansas, police chief was imprisoned in 2017.
"We've had a lot of rain and it's hampered the search efforts for most of the day," Rand Champion, an Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesperson, told USA TODAY. "But it looks like the rain should subside, and hopefully, that will help."
Champion said Hardin was only gone for about 20 minutes before an officer noticed he was missing.
Hardin was sentenced in Benton County in 2017 to 30 years in prison for murder, according to his corrections department profile. He was then sentenced in 2019 to 25 years for rape.
Sheriff Brandon Long of Stone County, which borders Calico Rock, said in a Facebook post that Hardin escaped through a secure entryway wearing a fake Department of Corrections uniform. A photo shared by the sheriff's office shows Hardin pushing a cart loaded with materials.
Authorities consider Hardin "extremely dangerous." Officials are also investigating the events that led to Hardin's escape.
The Arkansas Department of Corrections, Arkansas State Police, and local police are working to find Hardin, officials said. Police K-9 units are also searching for Hardin, Champion said.
Hardin was serving decades-long sentences at the North Central Unit facility near the Missouri border in Calico Rock, Arkansas. The facility is located about 130 miles north of Little Rock, Arkansas, and can hold around 800 prisoners, according to the Department of Corrections.
The facility is also about 130 miles east of the tiny Arkansas town of Gateway, where Hardin served as police chief, and near his last known address in Garfield, Arkansas, according to the corrections department.
"He does have a law enforcement background," Champion said, KHBS/KHOG-TV reported. "Anytime something like this exists, we consider it a threat to the community."
Hardin pleaded guilty in 2017 to shooting and killing James Appleton, according to KHBS/KHOG-TV. Appleton was killed in his truck in February of that year.
His brother-in-law told police that he was on the phone with Appleton when a car sped down the road and stopped next to Appleton's. A witness said he saw a white sedan next to Appleton's truck, heard a boom, and saw the sedan leave. The witness found Appleton shot in the head in the truck, KHBS/KHOG-TV reported.
Police in Rogers, Arkansas, another town in Benton County, used DNA evidence in 2018 to link Hardin to the 1997 rape of a school teacher, KHBS/KHOG-TV reported. The woman told police a man raped her when she had left her classroom for the restroom.
He was disguised with a knit stocking and sunglasses and carried a pistol, according to KHBS/KHOG-TV.
Hardin bounced around police departments before becoming the top cop in Gateway, according to KHBS/KHOG-TV and the Associated Press.
He was with the Fayetteville Police Department from Aug. 6, 1990, to May 22, 1991, according to KHBS/KHOG-TV. The department's chief of police then said he terminated Hardin because his efforts "fall short of the average probationary officer" and that he had a "tendency to not accept constructive criticism along with indecisiveness under stressful situations."
A spell at the Eureka Springs Police Department, from April 1993 to October 1996, was marred by excessive uses of force and poor decisions on the job, the department's former police chief said, according to 40/29.
Hardin was the chief of police for Gateway for about four months at the start of 2016, according to the Associated Press. The man he killed, Appleton, was the brother-in-law of the town's mayor.
Hardin's flight is just the latest high-profile escape in the nation. In New Orleans, 10 inmates – including some charged with murder – broke out of an Orleans Parish jail earlier in May.
Louisiana State Police announced the arrests of three more inmates in the brazen prison escape. Authorities said two escapees, Derrick Groves, 27, and Antoine Massey, 32, remain at large.
Groves, 27, was convicted of two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder in October in connection with a shooting during Mardi Gras in 2018, according to a statement from the district attorney's office. Massey was charged with domestic abuse involving strangulation and theft of a motor vehicle, according to Orleans Parish records.
Authorities initially suspected that other individuals helped with their escape from the prison. At least seven people have been arrested and charged with helping the inmates, including a fellow inmate accused of collaborating with the escapees.
'Fear of retribution' in New Orleans: Mass jail escape brings a big uneasy
"As I promised when we initiated our investigation, we will hold absolutely everyone who contributed any role to the prison break in New Orleans accountable," Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said.
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci
(This story was updated to add new information and video.)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former Arkansas police chief sentenced for murder escapes prison
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