'Escape artist'

[Waxd0g]

Kentucky man who eluded police across country captured in S. Fayette motel
'Escape artist' corralled
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
By Torsten Ove and Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Darrell Sapp / Post-Gazette
Local police, federal marshals and SWAT teams surround the Knights Inn on Hickory Grade Road in South Fayette where Anthony Artrip was holed up yesterday.

Anthony "Tony" Ray Artrip escaped a detention center, eluded law enforcement officials for three months across seven states and lived lavishly on $93,000 stolen in numerous bank robberies before settling in for a good night's sleep Sunday at a South Fayette motel.

It was not a restful stay.

Yesterday, Mr. Artrip, 35, of Ashland, Ky., was arrested at the Knights Inn on Interstate 79 several hours after U.S. marshals, acting on a tip, along with the Allegheny County SWAT team and police from 16 local departments, surrounded the one-story building and broke down the door to his room, No. 106, at about 9:30 a.m.

Mr. Artrip, who has a large "Fear No Evil" tattoo on his belly, did not go easily.

He had slipped through a small ceiling hole in the room's bathroom that officials believe he had prepared in advance.

The 80-room motel was evacuated -- 66 rooms had been occupied -- and Hickory Grade Road, near the Bridgeville exit of I-79, was closed. A state police plane circled the area while flak-jacketed officers patrolled the hotel roof and surrounding grounds in the unseasonable heat.

Although officials heard Mr. Artrip moving around in the ceiling of the motel, he did not respond to their negotiation attempts.

At about 1:45 p.m., at least one concussion grenade was fired into the ceiling crawl space. An hour later, officials pumped pepper spray-like gas into the crawl space where he was believed to have holed up.

Mr. Artrip began screaming "Shoot me! Shoot me!" as he stomped through the attic to escape the pepper spray. He finally broke the ceiling in Room 123 and was arrested around 3 p.m.

He was taken by ambulance to St. Clair Hospital to be decontaminated and treated for the pepper spray before he was sent to jail.

He was held last night in the Allegheny County Jail.

Mr. Artrip escaped from the Grant County Detention Center in Williamstown, Ky., on June 24. He was being held after his conviction in three bank robberies in southern Ohio. U.S. Marshal Tom Fitzgerald of the Western District of Pennsylvania said federal authorities had been tracking him through several states since Friday.

Mr. Artrip was on the U.S. Marshals Service's 15 Most Wanted Fugitives list and was presumed to be armed and dangerous.

Mr. Artrip's 3,087-mile odyssey began with his athletic exit from the Grant County lockup more than three months ago. In the wire mesh-covered recreation yard, he climbed to the top of a basketball backboard and continued up the wire wall.

Sitting in a homemade sling, he kicked his way through that last barrier before the guards below could reach him.

Once through the hole, Mr. Artrip ran across a one-story rooftop and jumped to the ground, fleeing into the woods to freedom.

It was the second jail in Kentucky from which he escaped. He made a getaway in 1997 from another county facility by climbing into the building's duct work and on to the roof before jumping to the ground.

He failed in an attempt last year to escape from a federal hospital in North Carolina, authorities said.

On June 30, almost a week after his latest escape, investigators suspect he robbed a bank in Princeton, W.Va. His note said, "Give me all the money or I'll start shooting."

He filled a McDonald's bag with money and fled in a car that later was found abandoned.

The America's Most Wanted Web site, citing federal authorities, said Mr. Artrip was next spotted in a July 2 bank robbery in Raleigh, N.C., where he gained access behind the counter at gunpoint and cleaned out most of the tellers' drawers.

Investigators said he spent about $57,000 on a lavish vacation to Panama City, Fla., where he partied with a nephew.

No robberies were reported again until Aug. 4, when he appeared at a bank in Monroe, Mich., authorities said. He climbed over the teller counter, threatened the nearest teller with a gun and took an undetermined amount of money.

On Aug. 21, he hit another Michigan bank and authorities tracked him to a residence in Frenchtown Township near Monroe. U.S. marshals said it appeared he had been living in Frenchtown until that day.

He escaped in a stolen pickup truck as police closed in.

On Sept. 10, federal investigators believed Mr. Artrip was in Asheville, N.C., and distributed posters there. A day later a U.S. marshal reported having seen him.

Marshals narrowly missed apprehending him, however. He fled into woods and the hunters lost track of him.

Three days later, a bank surveillance video 120 miles east in Mount Airy, N.C., picked up Mr. Artrip's likeness during a robbery of $9,000.

Through the first five post-escape robberies, authorities said, the suspect took $93,000.

Late last week, he was believed to be in Calhoun, Ga., where another bank was robbed.

Using confidential informants, U.S. marshals in Atlanta tracked Mr. Artrip's whereabouts to Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tenn., Ashland and then Charleston, W.Va., before learning that he was in Allegheny County.

"He was telling everyone that he would rather die free than live in prison," said Danny Doyle, a deputy U.S. marshal from Atlanta who had driven to South Fayette to assist in the arrest.
First published on October 9, 2007 at 12:00 am
Torsten Ove can be reached at tove@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1510. Jim McKinnon can be reached at jmckinnon@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1939.