DES ARC, ARKANSAS — Earl Parks was in jail on capital murder charges, was able to escape after overpowering two guards and taking their keys. Another inmate assisted Parks in the escape but was captured shortly after.
Parks, however, was on the run for 8 hours as police frantically tried to find him. He’s now back behind bars, thanks to two armed citizens who were alert to their surroundings and noticed something off.
Brad Knupp was just getting to work when he noticed something was off about the old car he’s fixing up. He said, “Something didn’t look normal to me in the backseat, and I looked a little closer and i could tell that this guy was laying down in the back seat of my car.”
Once he realized it was Parks, Knupp and his father held him at gunpoint until he was taken into custody. “We were yelling pretty loud at him. He came on out of the car slowly,” said Knupp.
It’s something he would do all over again if he had to, saying, “I just felt like I did what I needed to do to get him out of the car and hold him there until law enforcement could get there.”
via katv.com
Prairie County Sheriff Rick Hickman said he wasn’t surprised that two citizens in his county stepped up to the plate and did what they did.
“It’s just a good little county, you know. I knew that they would help and anybody who saw him would’ve called us or done the same thing, jumped out with their gun and held him if they could’ve.”
Parks was in jail on capital murder charges for the death of his girlfriend, Christy Rooks, whose remains were found in January.
Paying attention to your property and noticing things that are off is an important thing, because you never know what could be lurking around.
Taking the action that this father and son did is directly responsible for a dangerous person being back behind bars.
Watch the interview below.
