Hanceville Police Chief Bob Long explains to the city council the circumstances of Justin McCoy Booth’s escape and recapture, and the car crash that sent Officer Jason Hare to the hospital. / W.C. Mann
HANCEVILLE – At its regular meeting Thursday evening, Hanceville Police Department (HPD) Chief Bob Long gave the Hanceville City Council a detailed explanation of this week’s escape of inmate Justin McCoy Booth, and of his subsequent recapture in Birmingham. The chief also talked about the crash that sent Officer Jason Hare to UAB Hospital, and gave an update on Hare’s condition.
Justin McCoy Booth escape and recapture
According to Long, on Monday, Jan. 22, city hall was filled for the HPD’s court night, with more than 400 cases on the docket and 150 to 200 persons in attendance. Between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., while cases were being heard, the HPD had extra personnel on hand to assist with processing inmates to be jailed or released.
By 7 p.m. only a few inmates remained to be processed, and the extra officers had left. Two HPD officers remained on duty: one was working a vehicle accident scene at the north end of Hanceville, while the other worked a second vehicle accident on the east side of town.
What happened next, stated the chief, was a combination of mechanical and human error.
“The door (to the hallway where cells are located) was left unlocked . . . and this guy (Booth) went through the door, and about the time the dispatcher saw him, he bolts and runs. Well, unfortunately, the door that goes to the exterior portion of the building, it’s kind of outdated. All you’ve got to do is press a button, and you can get out. So he hit the button and actually went out, and was able to flee the scene.”
Long assured the council that the issues with both the inner and outer doors are being addressed, and he outlined some specific things being done that will not be relayed to the public, in order to preserve building security at the HPD office and jail.
The chief then talked about Booth’s recapture:
“We kind of felt he was in the Birmingham area. You know we’ve gotten a lot of TV press on it, and so forth. We got a lot of calls and tips on it. The investigator, (Lt.) Brannon Hammick, and Deputy Chief Adam Hadder, they spent a lot of time down in Birmingham looking for this idiot.
“We kind of got it narrowed down to the building they were in on the south side of Birmingham. I want to give great thanks to the Birmingham PD and Jefferson (County) Sheriff’s Department. They went in with a couple of deputies, walked into a huge room or a huge building, basically, with about 15, 16 people in it. About six or seven of those people ended up going to jail on outstanding warrants from other agencies, and our guy was laying there, pretending to be asleep.”
Booth has an outstanding warrant for burglary in St. Clair County, and was awaiting transfer there when he escaped. He was returned to Cullman County, though, facing a felony charge for escape, and a minor charge for theft of the jail uniform he was wearing at the time of his escape.
Officer Jason Hare accident and injuries
Long said Hare was in the left lane of U.S. Highway 31 N, about three car lengths behind Officer Brad Jones, who was in another vehicle in the right lane, as they approached the Alabama Highway 91 intersection. As the officers neared the intersection with emergency lights on, a tractor trailer approached from another direction. Jones stopped ahead and to the right of Hare. Hare did not stop, but entered the intersection.
“Jason, I think,” said Long, “probably because of the vehicle position and bright lights and blue lights, I think his condition was distorted; he never hit his brakes. Had he braked at the same time Brad Jones did, he would have stopped even farther behind the intersection. I think just the position of them and the tractor trailer, I believe that the bright lights and vehicle obscured his vision, and he never saw the 18-wheeler until they were both nose to nose in the intersection.”
Hare suffered a broken shoulder blade, fractures around his right eye socket, a chipped cervical vertebra but with no spinal cord damage, and multiple lacerations.
Long has been with Hare at UAB Hospital, and reported, “Jason’s pretty banged up. He was in pretty bad shape, but he’s improving daily. We were there today; he’s actually now–both of his eyes are open, most of the swelling’s gone from his face. They’re scheduling for a surgery to do some reconstructive surgery around his orbital eye socket and his nasal cavities. His head actually hit the computer mount inside the cab of the vehicle.
“So probably, we’re thinking, the way his wife was saying, he’s probably got another week or so in the hospital before they actually send him home.”
Long added, “The support from the community’s just been overwhelming. Businesses, individuals donated money here at the PD itself. Also, there’s a GoFundMe page that’s over $2,000, I think, by now. The (state) attorney general actually called him to check on him, and today he sent a representative from his office up to visit with Jason also. We’ve gotten a lot of support, even from all across the state, really.”
In his report to the council, Fire Chief Rodger Green commended the responders who went to the aid of Hare and the other injured driver, saying, “I think all the responders done a good job responding to that call. Everybody worked professionally. Usually, in a situation like that where it’s one of your own, it’s usually chaos, but everybody kept their cool, worked good together, worked as a team, and they got the job done.”
As of late Thursday night, Hare’s GoFundMe campaign had raised almost $4,300. Donations can be made at www.gofundme.com/injured-police-officer-jason-hare.
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