SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A California prison inmate who escaped during a hospital visit briefly invaded a day-care center across the street before being captured nearby, police said.
Maurice Ainsworth kicked in a door Monday at the Secret Garden Too preschool in Santa Cruz and invaded the infants room, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported. He seized a teacher's car keys at gunpoint and left.
Ainsworth escaped from the Dominican Hospital across the street just before noon by grabbing a female deputy's semi-automatic handgun.
Cathy LaTorre said there were four infants in the room with two adults, a teacher and a woman who had come to get her baby. The mother screamed, picked up her child, ran out and dialed 911.
Police said Ainsworth in his hurry apparently dropped the keys to the teacher's Volkswagen Rabbit in the parking lot and fled on foot. He was arrested a few blocks away at about 4 p.m.
During the search for the convict, the day-care center was locked down. UPI
