OFF-DUTY COP NABS INMATE ON THE RUN PITCHESS ESCAPEE LOOSE FOR FEW HOURS.

Byline: Amy Raisin Darvish Staff Writer

VALENCIA - An inmate who escaped a Castaic jail Monday morning - his 21st birthday - was recaptured three hours later in a neighborhood near Valencia High School after an off-duty Los Angeles police officer driving by detained the man.

LAPD Officer Francis Boateng spotted the escapee in his neighborhood about 8:30 a.m. still wearing a yellow jail-issue jumpsuit. With his baby in the back seat of his car, Boateng managed to stop the inmate and held him until sheriff's deputies arrived and identified him as the escapee, Dacian Broadnax.

``As I'm (driving by) I see the guy in a yellow jumpsuit that says L.A. County down the side (of his leg),'' Boateng said a couple of hours after the ordeal. ``I asked him what he's doing and he says (he's) waiting for a friend.''

Boateng, 36, returning from taking his 4-month-old son to the doctor, stopped his car in the middle of a neighborhood street near Decoro Drive and Copper Hill Drive and walked toward the shirtless escapee.

Once the off-duty cop had a strong grasp around Broadnax's arms and torso, he realized his cell phone was in his car at least 20 feet away.

``I dragged him over to the car. My son's crying and (the escapee) is struggling to get free,'' he said. ``But there was no way he was getting away. I called 911 and reported it as 'officer needs help.'''

Because the neighborhood is new, the 911 dispatcher couldn't locate the address on the map, which delayed the response of sheriff's deputies. Without the aid of handcuffs or a weapon, Boateng physically detained the escapee for about 20 minutes until help arrived.

During that time - Broadnax alternated between struggling to break free of Boateng's grasp and physically complying with his detainment - Boateng said he was bothered by the failure of passers-by to offer help.

``The thing I was really troubled by was about three neighbors drove by and didn't stop,'' he said. ``I told them to call 911. My car was in the middle of the street and they had to drive around me.

``I understand if someone doesn't want to get to know their neighbors, but this is their neighborhood, too. What if this guy had broken into their house?'' he said.

Broadnax was the second inmate in six days to escape from the Pitchess Detention Center after working in the laundry facility at the sprawling jail complex in Castaic. Bairon Perez, jailed on drug charges and due to be sent to state prison, walked away July 19, and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies have yet to recapture him.

Sheriff's deputies, aided by air squads and bloodhounds, blanketed the northern Santa Clarita Valley before 7 a.m. when Broadnax's ankle bracelet sounded an alert that he was off the jail grounds, sheriff's officials said.

Sirens sounded in surrounding neighborhoods in Castaic, Valencia and Stevenson Ranch to notify residents of the escape, and deputies alerted local day-care centers and summer camps that an inmate was on the loose. He was found in a neighborhood to the southeast of Pitchess.

Broadnax was arrested Feb. 7 in Santa Monica on charges of burglary, receiving stolen property and violating probation in another case.

Amy Raisin Darvish, [phone]

amy.raisin(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) Jail escapee Dacian Broadnax is taken into custody by a sheriff's deputy after being captured by off-duty Los Angeles Police Department Officer Francis Boateng, left. Broadnax was caught by Boateng near Valencia High on Monday.

(2 -- ran in SAC edition) Off-duty LAPD Officer Francis Boateng tells sheriff's deputies how he spotted and captured Dacian Broadnax, who had escaped from jail hours earlier.

David Crane/Staff Photographer

Map:

(ran in SAC edition only) INMATE ESCAPES

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