Handcuffed Suspect Escapes Patrol Car, Takes Off In Sonoma

SONOMA, CA – A Sonoma resident, arrested early Thursday, was handcuffed and being transported in the back of a patrol car to his booking when he managed to wiggle his way out of the vehicle and take off while the deputy briefly stepped inside a substation for paperwork, according to authorities.

Deputies from the Sonoma Police Department were called at 12:30 a.m. to a disturbance at a Chevron station on the 500 block of West Napa Street where they arrested Dominic Gates, 21, for suspicion of public intoxication, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office said.

After driving him to the Sonoma Valley substation for prebooking, the deputy left Gates in the car and was picking up paperwork inside the facility when he heard the car door shut, the agency said.

"The deputy ran outside to see Gates jumping the fence to escape the secured parking lot," the department said. "The deputy later realized that Gates had managed to slip his handcuffs to the front of his body, slip his skinny arms through the bars on the patrol car windows and unlatched the door to let himself out of the car."

The last thing the deputy saw of Gates was him jumping fences through the neighborhood, according to officials.

Deputies set up an area perimeter, called in the sheriff’s helicopter, searched the neighborhood and contacted nearby relatives, but eventually called off the hunt when the suspect was not found, the office said.

But at about 6:45 a.m., Gates -- still handcuffed -- arrived at the Sonoma Valley substation and turned himself in, deputies said. He was booked for suspicion of public intoxication and escape from custody, and is being held on $2,500 bail.

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--Image via Sonoma County Sheriff's Office