Texas Police Kill Fugitive Who Stabbed M-D Detective
GRAPEVINE, Texas (CBSMiami/Herald) – A Florida prisoner who escaped after stabbing a Miami-Dade police detective with his eyeglasses has been shot and killed by police near Dallas.
The Southlake, Texas, Department of Public Safety said Saturday morning that Alberto Morales was shot shortly before midnight following a foot chase. Police responded to an area near Lake Grapevine in North Texas late Friday night after receiving information from a local resident.
"Shortly before midnight, and acting on information received by a local resident, police responded to an area near Lake Grapevine," the police said in the statement. "Police officers located the fugitive and a foot pursuit ensued. As a result of the fugitive's actions he was shot and killed by officers."
Authorities didn't immediately release other details about what led to Morales' shooting. The Grapevine Police Department, leading the investigation and manhunt, is expected to have more information later Saturday.
The 42-year-old Morales was a convicted sex offender. He escaped Monday at a Wal-Mart store parking lot in Grapevine, a community near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Police say he used a sharp piece from his eyeglasses to stab a Miami-Dade detective who was transferring him by car to Nevada.
Morales is a violent career criminal with more than two dozen arrests. He has been in and out of prison for two decades on charges that included sexual battery on a 61-year-old woman and torturing exotic birds.
Miami-Dade police detectives were escorting Morales from Miami to Las Vegas when he pulled a series of stunts. He got himself kicked off the airplane in Houston after causing a disturbance. The detectives, Jaime Pardiñas and David Carrero, rented an SUV in Houston and embarked on a 1,500-mile road trip to Las Vegas, where Morales was being taken to serve two life stretches in prison for sexual assault.
The three stopped at a 24-hour Walmart in Grapevine to use the restroom, according to Miami-Dade police.
While Carrero was inside the store, Morales managed to break his eyeglass frame and use it like a dagger, stabbing Pardiñas in the chest and back. When Carrero returned, Pardiñas was bleeding and Morales was gone — apparently still in his handcuffs and shackles.
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