Police Detain Man Fleeing From Airport
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A 21-year-old man being extradited to St. Louis on burglary charges briefly escaped from custody at John Wayne Airport but was caught when he apparently was hit by a car.
Fugitive Robert Shook bolted from two St. Louis detectives about 11:20 a.m. as the group stood at the TWA airline counter, said Lt. Ron Wilkerson, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Shook then raced through the airport parking garage, shimmied down a two-story concrete column to street level and crossed MacArthur Boulevard, Wilkerson said.
“His story is that he was then struck by a car, although there are no witnesses to that,” Wilkerson said.
Shook then ducked into a delicatessen in the 2300 block of DuPont Drive, where an employee called police to report a suspicious, injured man, Wilkerson said. Irvine police arrested Shook and took him to Irvine Medical Center for treatment of injured ribs, Wilkerson said.
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