Following the Monday escape of an inmate from a transport van along Interstate 95 in Waltham, Massachusetts, the two Plymouth County deputies in charge of the van have been given some time off.
“I do know that they’re shaken up, but we’re going to give them a little bit of time off,” said Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald Jr. “Not as punishment or anything like that, but just to decompress.”
The two deputies were supervising the transport of 20-year-old Victor De Moura-Pereira for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Pereira was wanted on a warrant dating back to August 2023 for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Framingham Police located Pereira near Hollis Street in downtown Framingham on Sunday morning.
Exclusive video obtained by NBC10 Boston shows Framingham police tackling Pereira and attempting to arrest him. Over the next few minutes Pereira puts up a fight, as seven officers gather to try and arrest him.
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“He has a history of running and fighting with us," said Deputy Chief of Operations for the Framingham Police Department Sean Riley.
While Framingham Police knew what to expect from Pereira, the two deputies from the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department did not.
“Having seen the original video of the apprehension of this individual, I understand their feelings," McDonald Jr. said.
On Monday night, Pereira sat in the back of a Ford Transit van with cuffs on his hands and shackles on his legs. As the van drove down I-95 south, traffic came to a complete stop as construction workers fixed potholes along the road. With the van at a complete stop, the deputies who were sitting in the front of the van noticed the prisoner displaying unruly behavior in the backseat.
“He was able to get up off his seat he was able to bounce himself off the walls he was agitated and they were attempting to calm him down verbally,” McDonald Jr. said.
Pereira allegedly ignored their warnings, and instead found a flaw in the design of the vehicle which allowed him to squeeze himself through the plexiglass and gain access to the emergency exit.
“Probably 95% of the population would not have been able to physically do what he was able to do,” McDonald Jr. said, adding that the Ford Transit used on Monday was one of two in their fleet only used for ICE transports.
The two deputies notified local law enforcement about Pereira’s escape, beginning a 45-minute manhunt to find the escaped prisoner. He eventually wound up at the MSPCA in Waltham, where he ran into an employee of the animal rescue working on his car in the parking lot.
"I noticed immediately that he was wearing handcuffs and I looked a little more carefully and saw heavy duty shackles and a chain around his waist," the employee told NBC10 Boston. "I assumed he was dangerous. I just walked in the opposite direction and called 911."
The inmate was taken into custody minutes later. He has now been transferred into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The two Ford Transit Vehicles with the plexiglass design that Pereira used to escape have been taken out of commission. McDonald Jr. said that he plans to work with the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association to warn other departments against using those particular Ford models for transporting prisoners.
