Shocking surveillance footage shows the moment a murder suspect simply ran from an Oregon courthouse after sheriff’s deputies unleashed him.
Ed Villalobos, 28, was due to stand trial on February 27 for allegedly stabbing his mother’s partner, before stabbing an unrelated man just two hours later, leading police to an hours-long pursuit in 2021 .
But when a sheriff’s deputy untied both his wrist and ankle cuffs, as required by Oregon guard laws, he got up, pushed in a chair, and ran toward it, down the hallway and past the employees-only doors.
He did so after the MPs left a clear and obvious escape route.
The police were only able to catch up with him after a two-hour manhunt when someone reported that a man was trying to break into an apartment.
Villalobos is now back in custody and faces further charges for attempting to escape.
Ed Villalobos, 28, was due to stand trial on February 27 for allegedly stabbing his mother’s partner to death before stabbing an unrelated man to death just two hours later
Shocking security footage from the courtroom shows him running away
Security footage from the Washington County Courthouse shows two deputy sheriffs — apparently a man and a woman — leading Villalobos down a hallway to the first-floor courtroom where his hearing was scheduled.
Once inside, the male deputy pats him down and removes his wrist cuffs, after which Villalobos sits down so the deputy can remove his ankle cuffs as well.
“When it comes to removing the shackles, that’s what Oregon law requires of us,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Department later said in a statement.
But when the sheriff’s deputy finishes, Villalobos just gets up, slides a chair behind the table he and his attorneys would have been sitting at for the trial, and sprints out of the courtroom.
He walks through the courtroom door, with the male sheriff’s deputy following a few yards behind him, with the officer in tow.
On his way into the hallway, Villalobos increases the distance between himself and the officers who are still following him on foot, and appears to leap in front of a woman who is just about to open the door to the outside.
Villalobos nearly attacks a man as he tries to get to the staff-only door, which he slams behind him.
The footage showed a male sheriff’s deputy uncuffing Villalobos’ wrists
Villalobos then sat down so the deputy could also untie his ankles, per Oregon law
When the sheriff’s deputy finished, Villalobo got up, pushed over a chair, and ran out of the courtroom at the Washington County Courthouse
It’s unclear when the sheriff’s deputies lost sight of him, but what ensued was a two-hour manhunt through the town of Hillsboro, during which police cordoned off roads and even used a drone to track Villalobos’ whereabouts.
After nearly two hours, KATU reports, someone alerted deputies that someone was trying to get into an apartment on the 300 block of Southeast Fourth Avenue.
The owner said no one should be inside, but when deputies searched the house, they found Villalobos hiding in a closet under a blanket.
He was then taken back into custody, sheriff’s officials say, and a grand jury indicted him on charges related to his escape.
The trial against Villalobos has now been postponed to a later date.
He walked through the courtroom door with the MPs following him
Villalobos managed to put enough distance between himself and the deputies as he ran
The murder suspect almost attacked an innocent bystander as he walked out the doors of Staff Only
He is accused of stabbing Artemio Guzman-Olvera, 33, whom his mother saw, in April 2021 and fleeing the scene in a car.
About two hours later, the Oregonian reports, the Clackamas County sheriff’s deputies working for the city were called to an attack on an apartment complex where Villalobos allegedly stabbed 26-year-old Saul Antonio Ramirez Aguierre.
Aguierre was subsequently hospitalized in critical condition but ultimately survived.
About half an hour after the second stabbing, a police officer spotted Villalobos’ car and a police chase ensued.
At one point, the sheriff’s department said, he pulled over, got out of the car, and ran.
But with the help of multiple law enforcement agencies, Villalobos was arrested and jailed.