Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and Somerville Police Chief David Fallon brief the media on today’s prisoner arrest in Somerville. — Photo by Bobbie Toner

By Jim Clark

An inmate who escaped from Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, RI on December 31, 2016, was tracked down and apprehended in Somerville by State Police.

Local authorities had been tipped off that the fugitive, James Morales, could be in the area and that he was suspected of trying to rob a bank in Cambridge, where he is from.

State Trooper Joseph Merrick addressed the media after Thursday’s arrest of escaped convict James Morales.

Another attempted bank robbery occurred in Somerville on Thursday and alert State Troopers, who were on alert that Morales might have been the perpetrator, spotted him as he was walking down the street.

State Trooper Joseph Merrick gave chase as Morales tried running away. The escapee managed to briefly elude the officers, but was eventually located, hiding under the porch of a nearby residence. Merrick apprehended Morales as he tried climbing over a fence after his hiding place was found out.

Trooper Brendan Cain assisted in the arrest along with two detectives from the Somerville Police Department, Derrick Dottin and Kilsarys Leguisamon.

It is believed that Morales made his way out of the detention facility by climbing atop a basketball hoop than cutting and climbing through its razor wire fence. It is believed that he stole a car shortly thereafter.

Somerville Police Detective Kilsarys Leguisamon.

Somerville Police Detective Derrick Dottin.

Updated: January 11, 2017