UPDATED at 6 p.m. with comments from Walker County sheriff Steve Wilson
Two Walker State Prison escapees were captured Tuesday afternoon, about 15 hours after they fled and just three miles from the prison.
Escapees Fred Brooks and Buell Emberson were taken into custody about 12:15 p.m. The two men escaped about 9:15 p.m. Monday.
At 11:45 a.m. Tuesday Roosevelt Barkley, who lives on Centerpoint Road, was moving a vehicle, along with some friends who were helping him, when they noticed someone lying in the back of a truck.
“Somebody is sleeping in your truck,” one of the friends said to Barkley, who quickly noticed two people in the truck bed.
The 77-year-old Barkley said he yelled, with gun drawn, for the two men to get down on the ground.
“I really didn’t want to kill them,” Barkley said, “but I had it in mind of doing that.”
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The two escapees got out of the vehicle and stood there, while Barkley's friend called 911.
Shortly after Barkley's friend called 911, Emberson took off into the woods, Barkley said. A few moments later Brooks walked down Centerpoint Road, he said.
Brooks was found sitting on the porch at Barbara Brown’s residence on Centerpoint Road. She is Barkley’s neighbor.
“I didn’t even know he was sitting there,” Brown said.
This isn’t her first time having escapees hiding nearby, Brown said. She had a similar situation in either 1998 or 1999, the 67-year-old said.
Agents with the state Department of Corrections had been closing in on the two escapees. A helicopter had been searching from the air. Agents were also searching fields nearby and along the railroad lines that parallel U.S. 27.
A property owner who believed he spotted the escapees Monday night notified officials, according to Walker County sheriff Steve Wilson. The property owner said he saw them on the west side of the Chattooga-Chickamauga Railway lines in Rock Spring. That sighting was the starting point for the manhunt the next morning, Wilson said.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Greg Latta was the one who actually placed the handcuffs on Brooks, the sheriff said. Brooks reportedly said, “I’m the one your looking for” as Latta approached, Wilson said.
The search for Emberson took only a few minutes, he said. Deputy Kevin Denny and a team of three Department of Corrections agents located Emerson after a K-9 unit tracked his scent, Wilson said. Emberson was taken into custody without incident at a residence, he said. He had been hiding under a porch at the residence, he said.
More than a dozen agents with the Georgia Department of Corrections and several deputies from the Walker County Sheriff’s Office were involved in the search and capture.
According to the state Department of Corrections website:
Emberson came to the prison in October 2011 for aggravated assault charges, for which he received a 20-year sentence. He has 10 previous arrests, including terroristic threats in 2008, obstruction of law enforcement and eluding police in 2010.
Brooks arrived at the prison during September 2011 for kidnapping. Brooks is a career criminal with a rap sheet that starts in 1973. He has escaped from custody two previous times: in Gwinnett County during 1982, for which he received a two-year sentence, and in Dooly County in 1983.
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