Escaped Knox prisoner still at large

Authorities are still searching for a teenage inmate who escaped from custody Monday evening.

Nineteen-year-old Demarcus Sanchez Johnson escaped during a prisoner transport. He is facing aggravated assault and weapons charges.

The escape happened outside the City-County Building in Downtown Knoxville. A bus was transporting prisoners there from the Knox County Detention Facility. While getting off the bus, Johnson managed to slip out of his handcuffs.

He went into the building and got onto an elevator. At some point, he turned his jail-issue jumpsuit inside out.

He took the elevator to the the sixth floor, where Mayor Ragsdale's spokesman, Dwight Van de Vate got on with him. Van de Vate noticed the prisoner's clothing, but didn't want to alarm him, or create a dangerous situation.

"I tried not to give him any cues, because obviously, he's a young man, 170 pounds and over six feet tall, and I think that his ability to run and run quickly is going to be substantially greater than mine," said Van de Vate. "It took me about three floors before I could look at his clothing and figure out that it was a jumpsuit turned inside-out, and I still wasn't certain."

Van de Vate said he then noticed that Johnson had a plastic inmate bracelet on.

"I thought, 'No, it's time to call the Sheriff's Department, and do it now.'"

Van de Vate said he called Sheriff J.J. Jones, who wasn't aware of any escape at that point.

Then, as the prisoner walked across the skywalk toward the Main Street exit, Van de Vate tried to wave and alert a private security guard, but the prisoner got away.

A massive search for Johnson got underway Monday night, involving helicopters and ground patrols. However, as of Tuesday morning, he is still at large.

Knox County Sheriff's Department spokesperson Martha Dooley says an investigation into how Johnson escaped is being conducted.

"Our preliminary investigation shows that our proper procedure and policy were not followed, so we're looking into that right now," said Dooley. "They're supposed to have the belly chains; they're supposed to be shackled, and they were only handcuffed two-by-two, and that is against our policy."