Shots fired in suspected escapee attempt to re-enter prison [1]
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 22:18. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
ARMED police are continuing the search for two escaped prisoners after shots were fired at a Prison guard outside the Hu'atolitoli Prison compound on Saturday night, August 21.
The shots were fired by an intruder who was first sighted lurking in the prison farm compound. The guard who was armed with a stick was not injured.
Guards were patrolling the prison perimeter on Saturday evening because they suspected that a pair of escapees were trying to re-enter the prison to give inmates cigarettes and marijuana, the Superintendent of Prisons Sione Falemanu said today.
Police have been searching for over a month for two escapees Sione Movete Uatekini (24) of Tatakamotonga and Peni 'Inia (20) of Tu'anuku, Vava'u, who escaped the "maximum security" house at Hu'atolitoli Prison on July 22.
Supt. Falemanu said the incident took place around 9:15pm on Saturday. A prison guard was standing just outside the prison compound, on the Malapo side, when he saw a dark figure lurking inside the prison farm compound.
He yelled and chased after the suspect who then ran down Vaha'a Tofi'a, a dirt road situated beside the prison. As the guard chased after the suspect and yelled for him to stop the suspect turned around and fired shots at him.
Sione said the guard who was not armed, apart from a stick, said that the suspect then disappeared into the surrounding bush.
The police were informed immediately and a team was assigned to search the surrounding compound of the prison but no one was found.
The Superintendent said that the guard suspected that the shooter might be Sione Uatekini, one of the escaped prisoners, but it was too dark for him to positively confirm his identity.
In the meantime, because of the danger that that at least one of the escapees is now possessing a firearm, police officials who are joining prison guards on the hunt for the two men have armed themselves. The stepped-up search has been ongoing since Saturday with teams dispatched to various areas of Tongatapu.