INMATE ESCAPES FROM JAIL BUS

A man who was in custody in connection with a Des Moines homicide slipped out of his handcuffs and climbed out the window of a Polk County Jail bus on Friday, authorities said.Richard Robert Mutchler was quickly recaptured, but the incident has raised some serious security concerns."They're restrained. They have handcuffs, a waist chain and the deputies are there to watch them to make sure they're not doing anything suspicious," said Jana Rooker of the Polk County Sheriff's Office.Mutchler, 43, got away while the bus was transporting jail inmates to the courthouse downtown. He jumped out while the bus stopped at a light on Fifth Avenue."My only thought is that he must have thought about this for a while and kind of planned it," Rooker said.She said Mutchler wasn't at large for long."A deputy was able to leave the bus just seconds after he did, and (he) was able to catch him with the help of some construction workers," Rooker said.She said Mutchler didn't go down without a fight."He did try and grab the deputy's gun and did get a portion of it, but (he) wasn't able to dislodge it from holster," she said. "He was definitely trying anything he could to get away."She said now that Mutchler is back in custody, investigators are trying to figure out how he escaped."It's not a big space for a grown adult to get out of," she said. "I don't know how he pulled it all off or what it steps were, but we're going to try and retrace those steps and figure out what they were so we can prevent something like this from happening again."Mutchler is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

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