Two prisoners who escaped from a Virginia juvenile facility less than two weeks ago were arrested Saturday 700 miles away in Michigan.
Rashad E. Williams, 18, and Jabar Ali Taylor, 20, were found and arrested without incident at a hotel in Battle Creek, Michigan, at around 5 p.m.
The U.S. Marshals-led Grand Rapids Fugitive Task Force arrested the pair and received assisted by multiple local agencies and the FBI.
The duo escaped the Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center in Chesterfield County on July 13 after choking out a correctional officer and fleeing through a hole in a perimeter fence, a Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice release said.
They entered a getaway vehicle staged outside of the detention center. Department of Juvenile Justice Director Valerie Boykin said it was the first escape from the facility over 20 years.
Law enforcement officials followed numerous leads into several states since the escape. Williams and Taylor traveled together and fled to Pennsylvania initially, according to a U.S. Marshall news release.
“This evening’s apprehension of the escapees from the Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center is a result of the extensive investigative efforts and fortitude demonstrated by state and federal law enforcement,” Captain Richard Boyd, commander of the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Richmond Field Office, said.
Taylor was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and aggravated malicious assault. Williams was serving a sentence after being convicted of malicious wounding and robbery. Both were set to be transferred to an adult correctional facility when they turned 21-years-old.
Both Williams and Taylor are being held at the Calhoun County Jail in Michigan.
No information was provided on when they would transfer back to Virginia and if new charges were filed.
