The Latest: Video shows homicide suspect breaking handcuffs

LAS VEGAS – The Latest on the arrest of a Nevada homicide suspect who escaped from police custody on Friday (all times local):

4:40 p.m.

A police official showed video Wednesday of a homicide suspect twisting and muscling handcuffs until they broke, and then climbing onto a chair, removing a ceiling tile and escaping from a North Las Vegas police interview room.

North Las Vegas Police Chief Alexander Perez told reporters that Alonso Perez was still wearing ankle chains and the broken cuff on his right wrist when he escaped last Friday.

It was another 25 minutes before detectives realized he was missing, the police chief said.

By then, police say Perez had stolen a truck that had been left running in a nearby parking lot. It was found a few hours later, abandoned in a neighbourhood several miles east of downtown Las Vegas.

Perez was re-arrested late Tuesday when police and FBI agents found him in an apartment not far from where the truck had been found.

Police say Perez is a suspect in the Aug. 27 shooting death of Mohammed Robinson outside a McDonald’s restaurant in North Las Vegas.

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8:45 a.m.

Police say a Nevada homicide suspect who had been on the loose for more than four days after breaking his handcuffs was recaptured overnight less than a mile from where police found a truck he’s believed to have stolen to get away.

North Las Vegas police Officer Aaron Patty said Wednesday that Alonso Perez surrendered when police and FBI agents found him in an apartment about 8 p.m. Tuesday several miles east of downtown Las Vegas.

Patty says he doesn’t know if Perez had a weapon with him.

Police say Perez broke a set of handcuffs Friday and fled from a police interview room. The truck was found hours later.

Police say Perez is a suspect in the Aug. 27 shooting death of Mohammed Robinson outside a McDonald’s restaurant in North Las Vegas.

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3 a.m.

A homicide suspect has been recaptured, four days after he broke free from handcuffs and fled a Las Vegas-area police station.

North Las Vegas police said law officers apprehended Alonso Perez, 25, at a residence about 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Police did not release any other details of the arrest. But KLAS reported that Perez was taken into custody after officers surrounded the house and demanded his surrender. There were no reports of any injuries.

Perez had been on the loose since he freed himself from handcuffs Friday and fled from the station.

He had been identified by police as a suspect in an Aug. 27 shooting that left Mohammed Robinson, 31, dead outside a McDonald’s restaurant.

Witnesses said the fatal argument began with angry words about Robinson not holding a door open for a woman.

On Friday, he was alone in a police interview room when he broke the hinge of his handcuffs and escaped with one cuff still attached to his right wrist, Officer Aaron Patty said.

“He twisted them until they broke,” Patty said prior to Perez’s recapture. “This is an extremely unfortunate circumstance. We’re going to take a look at the details of how he escaped.”

Perez, 25, who also uses the name Alfonso Perez, allegedly fled and stole a Ford F-250 work truck from a nearby parking lot. The vehicle was later found in a neighbourhood east of downtown Las Vegas.

The escape was believed to be the second this year from a police station in the Las Vegas area.

The April escape of Ivan Mayoral-Lizarraga from a northeast Las Vegas police substation prompted a nearly five-hour lockdown of a surrounding neighbourhood before the search was called off. Police said Mayoral-Lizarraga was being questioned in a stolen vehicle investigation when he fled.

He was arrested about two weeks later, and pleaded guilty to felony home invasion, assault with a weapon and escape charges, according to court records. Mayoral-Lizarraga, now 40, was sentenced last month to 2-to-5 years in state prison.