Updated at 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 6
A man accused of breaking two other men out of the Pilot Station jail on Tuesday was apprehended by community members, Alaska State Troopers say.
Dale Fancyboy, 22, showed up at the jail around 11:30 p.m., armed with a shotgun, troopers wrote in an online dispatch. Fancyboy threatened an unarmed emergency jail guard with the gun, and helped two men — 19-year-old Thomas Heckman and 22-year-old Dion Joseph — escape their cells. The three men then fled the jail, and on their way out, Fancyboy threatened two Village Police Officers who had just arrived.
“Fancyboy has since been taken into custody by community members and housed at the local jail,” troopers wrote.
Heckman and Joseph have also been taken back into custody, according to AST spokeswoman Megan Peters. Joseph was being held at the jail on multiple outstanding warrants, including two for previous escapes from the same jail.
“Both of Joseph’s previous escapes occurred when he was not secured at the jail and he ran away. No firearms were involved in those,” Peters said in an email.
Heckman was in custody for allegedly helping Joseph in a case involving theft, burglary and assault.
Troopers are continuing their investigation.
The village of Pilot Station is located along the Yukon River in western Alaska, northwest of Bethel.
