And those escapees are on the run – prison officer Emmanuel Barrow says he is being made to take the fall for their escape. On the night of the escape Sunday April 11th Barrow was the sole officer in charge of the Super-Max area which houses 48 of the most dangerous, high risk criminals. The 5 escapees trapped him, tied him up, robbed him and threatened to kill him. But instead of being treated as a victim he was detained for 48 hours as a possible suspect in facilitating their escape and then released only to find that the prison was getting ready to terminate him.
Emotional and angry, he came to our studios today to vent in what he says is an injustice heaped upon an ordeal no lawman should have to face. He told us that it started on Sunday night at 11:30 when he was unarmed and un-prepared for what lay in wait for him down the halls of the building known as Tango 10.
Emmanuel Barrow, Prison Officer
“That night I was upstairs watching TV, which in I shouldn’t have but all the entrants from which the guys could come out where secured. I was upstairs talking to the ex-policeman Cowboy and I hear somebody holler for me. A voice of an inmate I know and so I went downstairs and so I unhooked the wricket because the man they couldn’t come out because the main entrance of the flight was hooked. It was to be locked but it was hooked.”
Jules Vasquez,
“I am not familiar with the term wricket.”
Emmanuel Barrow,
“Wricket is basically a burglar bar gate. So when I went down it was to the flight that hold all of the former escapees. It is a very spooky flight,
it is a flight I keep my self from. I go when I have to do my check and when it is necessary but it is not somewhere where I patrol without need. So the voice I know draw me down and so I come down and I unhooked it and I went inside and holler who need help. ‘Bwai dah me Barrow.’ I said that sound like this guy at either the second or the third cell. When I holler again and nobody answered and then I said somebody said down more, ‘’Bwai Barrow dah me.’ I said something doesn’t sound right and so I hollered bwai dah who need help. Then I didn’t hear nothing and said this sounds funny and so I said would turn back because when normally when they need help they would push out their hands and say it is me and I didn’t see nobody and the flight was unusually quiet.
Well now when I was looking to turn back now, as I turn now with my heart going this way, my eye ketch the wricket, now this is not the main wricket, this is the wricket to cell 4 which was housing Cocom and Melgar. I see this thing with the chain and the padlock the open. I will tell you Mr. Jules, with no disrespect, if my heart was bad I would have had a heart attack because I got so frightened because you know you expect something to close and it is being opened so when I turned this way I saw Melgar the come out with a big thing like big bora and he come down into my chest. I told him please nuh kill me, please nuh kill me. He said the only way I will kill you is if you make noise and you don’t do what we say. So they told me to get down and this is right under the camera so I didn’t mind because I said the surveillance camera is there and they will see what the happen.
So I got down and then Cocom come, he grabbed me by the foot and he dragged me. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the movie where they were looking to kill a man in the bathtub where they hold him down. So I said dah dead I will dead now. So I said please don’t kill me, I have a daughter to live for, please don’t kill me. So they dragged me into the cell. They went and tied me up in some tine wire which bust into my skin. They tied me up here, behind my hand, across my foot, and my ankle. So Cocom he got over me like he would stab me. I begged Melgar to please not let him kill me and they put the knife at my neck because they wanted to know who was at the control, they needed to know how to operate the radio and even my cell phone which they robbed from me because I had a slide. So when they saw it they thought it was a touch screen
but if you don’t push it up so don’t see the touch button so they had to come back all the way. So at that time they kneeled in my chest.”
Jules Vasquez,
“So they came back to ask you how to use the phone?”
Emmanuel Barrow,
“Yes.”
Jules Vasquez,
“And you showed them?”
Emmanuel Barrow,
“I had to because they would kill me. I had to comply. I showed them how to reach from the radio because if I didn’t show them they would have killed me. The man done spare my life because he said not to make noise or do what we say and then we won’t kill you. And they even asked me now why didn’t make noise right away. When I made noise is when I heard a shot fire and then I know the men weren’t on spot because I am not stupid, the men made me live so I didn’t make noise and give away their position.
I cried like a woman for my life. I believe man fi act like man and I believe I am the most manliest man until that day because I cried like a woman for my life and I think I lost some testerone after that day. I begged for my life. I begged for my life. It is because I begged the mastermind I didn’t die, Melgar because he was the one they were asking who to bust out next and he is the one I begged for life and he gave me the chance to live.”
We stress that we spoke to Prison CEO Mel Auil who told us that he had absolutely nothing to do with Barrow’s detention. He says he did not communicate with the Hattieville Police and did not tell them that he had any incriminating evidence. Furthermore, he adds that he has no power to tell police who to detain.
