Inmate who slipped shackles, cuffs captured
MACON, Ga. — An escaped prisoner charged with killing a rural county’s sheriff over the summer was recaptured Tuesday evening in a search that involved more than 100 law enforcement officers.
Agent Lindsey Giddens of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Jim Edward Lowery escaped from deputies Tuesday morning at the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office, about 50 miles east of Macon.
The GBI said in a release that the inmate was shackled and double-cuffed when he escaped while being transported Tuesday from the jail in neighboring Treutlen County to Laurens County.
According to the release, Lowery "managed to get the shackles off of his legs as the vehicle he was being transported in arrived at the Laurens County Jail. Lowery used the leg shackles to bust out the window of the patrol car and fled from the deputy."
Lowery's handcuffs, still intact, were found in the roadway nearby, according to the GBI.
A deputy chased Lowery into the woods near the jail until he lost sight of him, the release said.
Lowery, 35, is charged with felony murder in the June death of Montgomery County Sheriff Ladson O’Connor. Authorities say the sheriff died in a crash while pursuing Lowery, who is accused of firing gunshots at deputies during the chase.
Contributing: The Associated Press