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Home > News > Suspect mistaken for escaped Minn. prisoner
Suspect mistaken for escaped Minn. prisoner
KAUKAUNA, Wis. (AP)
Authorities who cordoned off a local park Friday to search for an escaped prisoner from Minnesota later said they were mistaken.
Police initially said they believed they were looking for Jun William Vang, 27, who walked away Sept. 8 from the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Lino Lakes where he was serving a term for attempted homicide.
After checking surveillance video from a convenience store, however, they said the person was not Vang but a man with an arrest warrant from Green Bay who was not considered armed and dangerous. They did not release his identity.
Kaukauna Police Chief John Manion said the search developed after a series of events that started in nearby Combined Locks about 1 p.m. when a service station reported a motorist filled up his tank and drove away without paying.
A Combined Locks officer spotted a car matching the description, but when he tried to stop it, the car sped off.
The pursuit ended when the car crashed into a tree near Horseshoe Park in Kaukauna.
Louise Becklund said police told her two men fled into the woods directly east of her house.
The search caused a lockdown of Kaukauna schools, where after-school activities were canceled and children were organized to stay in groups as they left or to be escorted by teachers.
“It’s been pretty wild here,” school Superintendent Lloyd McCabe said.
