UPDATE: 5:19 p.m.
Maurice Ainsworth, who was considered armed and dangerous, was taken into custody shortly after 4:30 p.m. Monday.
Santa Cruz Interim Police Chief Kevin Vogel told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that Ainsworth was arrested without incident after being holed up in an unoccupied house for hours.
********************************************************************************
A Santa Cruz County inmate escaped custody around 11:30 this morning after tasing a sheriff’s deputy and taking her gun.
Police tried to transport 24-year-old Maurice Ainsworth to Dominican Hospital for a medical procedure but Ainsworth had other plans.
According to authorities, Ainsworth overpowered the deputy, took her .40-caliber handgun, tased her, then fired the gun at someone else before running away.
Schools in the area went into lockdown and some people needed to evacuate their homes after the escape.
Aisworth is a 6’7” black man, 275 pounds and was wearing a yellow jumpsuit but is believed to have changed into a brown jacket with plaid pants.
Police began conducting foot and aerial searches to find Ainsworth who was in jail awaiting a trial.
Ainsworth is charged with breaking into a Los Gatos home with co-defendant Jyler Raines on March 27, 2009 and stealing wallets, jewelry, bank information and a car.
Ainsworth is scheduled to go to court Jan. 10 on four felony counts.
