A former police chief known as the “Devil in the Ozarks” escaped prison in Arkansas. Here’s what to know.

Officers scoured Arkansas’ rugged Ozark Mountains for a former police chief and convicted killer who escaped from prison over the weekend.

Grant Hardin, who briefly served as police chief for the small city of Gateway, close to the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving a decadeslong sentence for homicide and rape.

Generally known as the “Satan within the Ozarks,” he escaped Sunday from the North Central Unit, a medium-security jail in Calico Rock.

Hardin’s escape occurred days after 10 males fled a New Orleans jail by going by means of a gap behind a bathroom. Eight of these fugitives have since been captured.

This is what to find out about Hardin and his escape:

How did he escape?

Hardin escaped from the jail Sunday afternoon by impersonating a corrections officer “in gown and method,” in accordance with a court docket doc. A jail officer opened a safe gate, permitting him to go away the power.

The outfit was not a regular inmate or correctional uniform, mentioned Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Division of Corrections. Officers are working to find out how he was both capable of get the uniform or manufacture it himself.

Video surveillance reveals Hardin escaped at about 2:55 p.m. on Sunday, Champion mentioned. Officers introduced his escape about two hours later.

However how he obtained out of the jail and escaped right into a rural a part of the state, in addition to whether or not he had any assist continues to be unclear.

Jail officers say they’re investigating what led as much as the escape “to assist decide any help he might have had.”

“An energetic search stays in impact involving plenty of regulation enforcement businesses from throughout the state,” the Arkansas Division of Corrections said in an update Tuesday afternoon.

Champion mentioned the choice to accommodate Hardin in a medium-security facility, which has a capability of about 800 folks, weighed the “wants of the completely different services and inmates” and “assessments” of his crimes.

“As people go, there’s only a few those who have that many violent expenses that they have been convicted of,” mentioned Bryan Sexton, the present prosecutor in Benton County, the place Hardin was convicted in 2017. “Our regulation enforcement companions in that a part of the state are working arduous to ensure they choose him up as rapidly as attainable and get him again in custody.”

Why was he in jail?

Hardin had been held on the Calico Rock jail since 2017 after pleading responsible to first-degree homicide for fatally capturing James Appleton, 59.

Appleton, a Gateway water division worker, was shot within the head in 2017. Police discovered his physique inside a automotive. Hardin was sentenced to 30 years in jail.

Hardin’s DNA was entered into the FBI’s Mixed DNA Index System, and it matched the 1997 rape of a trainer at an elementary college in Rogers, a metropolis in northwestern Arkansas. He was sentenced to 50 years in jail for that crime. He was a police officer in Eureka Springs, not removed from Rogers, at the moment.

Cheryl Tillman, the mayor of Gateway, is considered one of Appleton’s sister. CBS Information’ Ian Lee requested Tillman what her response was when she discovered Hardin had escaped jail.

“My coronary heart simply sank,” Tillman mentioned. “You already know, I assumed, oh my gosh, what are we gonna do now?”

Tillman instructed CBS Information that “anxiousness is basically excessive.”

“I get actually nervous and scared. And I do not like weapons, however we’ve got one loaded now,” Tillman mentioned.

His quick tenure as police chief

Hardin turned police chief of Gateway, a city of about 450 folks, in 2016.

Nearly in a single day, folks in the neighborhood described within the 2023 HBO documentary “Satan within the Ozarks” a dramatic shift.

“He was out chasing automobiles for no purpose,” mentioned Tillman. “He was pulling weapons on the residents right here in Gateway after which as time went on with him being the police chief issues simply began happening hill quick.”

The documentary revealed an important run-in between Hardin and Appleton within the Spring of 2016 wherein Appleton stood as much as Hardin about fixing a police automotive. A Benton county sheriff’s workplace lieutenant described a number of instances after they obtained into one another’s faces and the hate they each felt towards each other.

Town council gave him an ultimatum: resign or be fired. He stepped down 4 months after taking the place and 9 months later, he killed Appleton.

The “Satan within the Ozarks” documentary

The “Satan within the Ozarks” documentary revealed key particulars concerning the effervescent resentment Hardin felt towards Appleton in addition to revealing accounts of the moments proper earlier than and after the homicide.

Then-Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, Cheryl Tillman’s husband and Appleton’s brother-in-law, described being on the cellphone with him when he was shot, whereas native resident John Bray spoke about driving previous Appleton’s automotive when the capturing occurred. He was the primary to search out his physique and recognized Hardin because the shooter.

“I heard what I assumed was somebody had fired a riffle,” he mentioned.

“I went again and I seen it regarded like he had been shot,” he added, wiping away tears.

The documentary additionally contains safety video of Hardin at a restaurant together with his household simply after the capturing and the police interrogation wherein he tells regulation enforcement he has “the correct to be silent” and opted to not give an announcement.

The seek for Hardin

Authorities are utilizing canines, drones and helicopters to go looking the rugged northern Arkansas terrain, Champion mentioned.

Though he didn’t reveal the precise areas of the search, he did say it has expanded as extra time has elapsed because the escape.

Officers have confronted challenges looking the areas as it’s extremely rocky and heavy rain has fallen in latest days.

The world across the jail is a rural a part of the state, which may make Hardin’s escape tougher. In a small neighborhood, there is a greater probability somebody will acknowledge him and alert the authorities, mentioned Craig Caine, a retired inspector with the U.S. Marshals who has dealt with many circumstances involving escaped prisoners.

The Division of Correction and the Division of Group Correction are following leads with native, state and federal regulation enforcement businesses.