An escaped Arkansas fugitive has been recaptured after a homeowner found the suspect hiding in his trash can and held him at gunpoint for police.
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It all started when 31-year-old Jonathan Ware was arrested last Tuesday morning over a fight with another man named John Worsley. The brawl began when Worsley told Ware to stop harassing his mother, at which point Ware picked up a golf club and hit Worsley in the head. Worsley retaliated by grabbing his knife and stabbing Ware in the lower back.
Ware was treated at a local hospital for the stab wound, but he managed to escape while being transported back to be processed by police. The Harrisburg Police Department says Ware grabbed a radar gun from the car he was being held in and used it to smash through the window before jumping out of the moving vehicle.
“I had him handcuffed behind his back,” Harrisburg Police Chief Gary Hefner said. “When I looked back, he had his cuffs in front of him. He grabbed the radar unit or the antenna of the back of my unit, and he busted the window out on the driver side.”
At around 6:30 a.m. the next morning, a homeowner was walking his wife out to her car when he heard and saw his trash can moving. Alarmed, the homeowner went and grabbed a gun, and then opened the lid to the trash can. He found Ware hiding inside, still in handcuffs and still in the same clothes he was wearing when he made his escape.
The homeowner then held Ware at gunpoint until police arrived at the scene.
Ware—who has a lengthy rap sheet that includes a prior escape—was already facing a felony second-degree battery charge stemming from the first incident, but he’s now looking at charges of criminal mischief, escape, fleeing and criminal trespassing as well.
