The day-long manhunt for 19-year-old Johnny Soto came to an end Wednesday night after a man discovered him hiding under a loom and a sheet in his apartment.
“I grabbed my flashlight, moved the sheet, and there’s a face looking back at me,” 62-year-old Terry Pierson told CBS New York. “He’s been sitting behind my chair for three hours.”
Soto was heading to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn when he fled federal custody.
Pierson’s neighborhood was notified earlier that day to be on alert for Soto, and officers previously searched his house. Upon his discovery, knowing police are all around, he went outside yelling, “‘He’s in there, he’s in there.’”
Officers were waiting for him as soon as he came out of the basement of Pierson’s apartment.
It is believed that Soto entered Pierson’s home through a cracked backdoor after being chased off another’s porch prior.
“He was already on our porch, so I grabbed the meat cleaver and I chased him off the house,” Stefanie Tatsis told CBS New York. “He jumped over and he started doing his jumping over each yard to try to find his escape.”
Arrested in Queens for illegal firearm possession, there has been no attorney to come forward to comment on Soto’s behalf.
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