iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The prisoner who escaped from immigration officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport earlier this week was captured halfway across the country on Friday.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official confirmed Mohamadou Lamine Mbacke was taken into custody in Chicago Friday afternoon. Chicago ABC station WLS-TV reported Mbacke was found while at a Starbucks at about 1:30 p.m.
Mbacke, 31, was spotted by undercover officers at the coffee shop, according to a witness.
“All of a sudden — see seven cops kind of running from the outside into the inside, and they kinda huddled around him. There wasn’t any fuss or anything. It was just they all exchanged words with him, they got the handcuffs, and they left in like a group huddle,” Zimbo Gessert, a Starbucks employee, told WLS-TV.
Mbacke was being deported to his native Senegal on Tuesday night when he bailed from Terminal 4 at JFK Airport at about 8:30 p.m. According to ICE, surveillance footage showed Mbacke hailing a cab and driving off.
The prisoner was with officials at JFK while waiting for a connecting flight from Detroit to Dakar. New York ABC station WABC-TV, citing sources, said the officials had turned to get him food when he took off.
It is not clear how he got to Chicago.
Mbacke entered the U.S. legally in 2005, but was ordered to be deported in September 2015 after being released from state prison for multiple weapons and firearms offenses, according to ICE.
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