Two Columbus schools placed on lockdown after prisoner escape, officials say
Two Columbus schools were placed on “soft lockdown” Thursday as police pursued escaped prisoners.
Double Churches Middle School was in the security protocol between noon and 12:20 p.m., according to a 12:30 p.m. email to school board members and superintendent cabinet members from Muscogee County School District communications director Mercedes Parham.
“Administrators were informed, by law enforcement, that two escaped prisoners were in the vicinity at the school,” she said. “The prisoners reportedly escaped during a garbage truck route on Double Churches Road.”
MCSD police and Columbus Police Department officers responded, school perimeters were secured and parents were being notified, Parham said.
In an updated email at 1:05 p.m., she said Double Churches Elementary School “is also under a soft lockdown” and “one of the prisoners has been captured.”
A soft lockdown means nobody can enter or leave the building but staff and students can move around inside. Last week, three MCSD schools and a Columbus private school were placed on lockdown, meaning nobody could leave their classroom, when police chased two suspects onto Northside High School’s campus after they allegedly had stolen a vehicle.
CPD tweeted around 1:40 p.m. that officers were still in the 2300 block of Double Churches searching for an escapee. Around 2 p.m., follow-up tweets said the at-large inmate is John Lloyd Pollock, a 33-year-old man weighing 150 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. He is 5-foot-8 and was seen wearing a blue hoodie, blue t-shirt and jeans.
The Ledger-Enquirer hasn’t reached Muscogee County Prison warden Dwight Hamrick for comment about this escape. Another prison official, however, emailed the L-E more information around 2:30 p.m., saying Pollock escaped from Double Churches Park at noon and is serving a three-year sentence for second-degree burglary with a maximum release date of Jan. 24, 2021.
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 1:50 PM.
