A district court judge jumped from his bench, threw off his robe, and chased after two inmates who attempted to flee from his Chehalis, WA courtroom on Wednesday.
Judge R.W. Buzzard leapt from his chair when Tanner Jacobson, 22, and Kodey Howard, 28, ran for the door while still handcuffed. Buzzard chased the two men through a hallway and a stairwell, eventually apprehending Howard on his own.
“I didn’t know what to think by the time they hit the door,” Buzzard told CNN. “I’m like, ‘there’s nobody between them and the street, so I wanted at least to find out where they were going.”
Footage from the Lewis County court house shows the two inmates running down a hallway when Howard face-planted going around a corner. He picked himself up but lost a shoe in the process. This allowed Buzzard time to catch up to him and grab him before he could escape through an emergency exit. Jacobson was arrested a few blocks from the court house.
“Once I got to the stairwell, I knew I was going to be able to catch the one that was just in front of me because I immediately started gaining on him,” Buzzard told CNN.
Chief Deputy Dusty Breen of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Department said Buzzard was “a help” to apprehending the inmates, and that this was “not the first incident Judge Buzzard has gotten involved in,” though he didn’t elaborate.
Howard had been arrested previously for burglary in 2010, but a search of current public records could not find why he was before Buzzard at this time. Jacobson was previously arrested on March 8, “on suspicion of residential burglary and trafficking in stolen property.” Authorities say he stole three Stihl chain saws and sold one at a Centralia, WA pawn shop. As with Howard, a search of current public records could not find the reason he was arrested this time.
Both men appear to have been arrested on or around Oct. 17.
Both men are now also charged with second-degree escape for their episode in front of Judge Buzzard.
In a statement reported by ABC6, Sheriff Rob Snaza said of the attempted escape: “these things don’t happen very often.”
Watch the chase below: