A 30-year-old inmate was taken into custody following an hours-long search after he escaped from the San Francisquito Conservation Camp Tuesday morning, according to law enforcement officials.
Law enforcement was notified at approximately 9:52 a.m. that an inmate, from a fire camp on the 53100 block of San Francisquito Canyon Road, escaped by foot and was seen near the area of Copper Hill Drive and Haskell Canyon Road, according to Deputy Robert Jensen, a spokesman for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s station.
The incident drew a large law enforcement response, with local deputies and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials assisting in the search for the inmate, Jensen said.
Officers with the California Highway Patrol were also staged at the command post to assist, said Officer Carlos Burgos-Lopez, a spokesman for CHP’s Newhall-area Office.
The inmate was identified as Adrian Gonzalez after he was discovered to be missing during an emergency count at the facility, according to a CDCR news release.
Gonzalez was received at the camp from Monterey County on Feb. 26 of last year and had been sentenced to 11 years and eight months for carjacking, assault with a deadly weapon, evading a peace officer causing serious bodily injury, and driving under the influence with great bodily injury and two or more priors, according to the release. He has been housed at the San Francisquito camp since Aug. 21, the news release added.
At approximately 1 p.m., a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department aerial unit located Gonzalez in a rural mountainous area north of the Haskell Canyon Archery Range, near the 21450 block of Copper Hill Drive, according to Jensen.
Gonzalez was described as a male Hispanic with a shaved head, and made his way to the area of the steep canyon southwest of the conservation camp by foot utilizing the nearby trails, according to Jensen and the news release.
The archery range was temporarily closed during the active search, but it reopened after deputies took Gonzalez into custody and transferred him to CDCR officials, Jensen said.
Gonzalez was not considered armed or dangerous at the time when he escaped, and there was no immediate threat to the public, Jensen said.
According to the CDCR release, Gonzalez will be rehoused at a prison, and his case will be referred to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for consideration of escape charges.
At the time of the active search, SCV station officials asked that residents remain indoors and secure their homes and report any suspicious activity to the station at 661-260-4000 or dial 9-1-1.
The CDCR camp on San Francisquito Canyon Road is jointly operated by the CDCR and the L.A. County Fire Department, according to the CDCR website.
“Since 1977, ninety-nine percent of the incarcerated people who have escaped or walked away from an adult institution, camp, in-state contract bed or Community Rehabilitative Program Placement have been apprehended,” the release read.
