Hattieville woman stabbed by escaped prisoner
Women all over the country are walking their children to school these days to protect them from child molesters and other criminals, but this morning shortly after eight a.m. it was a mother who was attacked. News Five was in Hattieville today where a woman, still shaken from her encounter with a prison escapee, told us her story.
Thirty-year-old Marcia Pope had just left her home on Malic Road and was making her way out to the Burrell Boom/Hattieville Road when she was attacked by an inmate who had just escaped from Hattieville Prison. Pope, who was with her children ages twelve to two years old, says although she was scared, she was even more frightened for her kids.
Marcia Pope, Stabbing Victim
“When I look, I see somebody stooped down very low; he had a cap on his head so I tell my kids, “Oh my gosh a prisoner.” I see him stand up. I didn’t decide to run or anything. I see him get up and he started to come with speed towards me. By the time he get in front of me he grab me by one hand and at the same time with the other hand he went into his pants waist and haul out this instrument which I say was a spoon or maybe a fork, you know.”
As Pope screamed to her children to run out to the highway, she said the inmate who has been identified as Efraim Tut, grabbed her hands and dragged her into the bushes.
Marcia Pope
“He dragged me over there and he said he would kill me. I just tell my kids go ahead and the first person they meet from the prison let them know that an escaped prisoner is back here.
I start punching him at one point; it wasn’t easy because he was always trying to stab me with what he had in his hand. But I managed to grab him around the neck and choke him there for a while and I even bite him behind his neck. And that was the time I called my son and said find something to lash this guy out with and he grabbed a piece of branch and start whipping at him and he knocked my son back. I didn’t mind and just continued fighting.
I don’t know why, he decided to run after a while and he dropped the instrument and went off in the bush and after a distance I saw him come out. Me and my son, we just came out and did not wait to see if he was getting up.
I have this wound on my hands and in my head. I think I got about five or six stitches here (head) and this one (hand) is about three and I have here and then I have bruises and scrapes on this side of my shoulder.”
Q: “I’ve known you for a time and I recall you telling me that the only thing you regret about moving up here is the fear that one day an incident like this might happen. What will you do now? Will you move from the area?”
Marcia Pope
“I am still not sure what I will do yet, after today it kinda hit home. I never expect something like this to happen. I mean it is something you think about “could” happen but after today I am not sure.”
One thing Pope will not need to worry about now is about the whereabouts of Tut. The prisoner was captured in the vicinity. Prison Superintendent Keith Hamilton says Tut, who is serving a three-year sentence for the possession of unlicensed firearm, ammunition and theft, was on a work program. As he made his way to the woodwork shop situated outside of the confines of the institution he slipped away. Tut has now been placed in maximum security and is expected to be charge with attempted murder, wounding and use of threatening words.
It was not the first time that Efraim Tut made a break for freedom. In 1998 he escaped and was recaptured after ten days on the run.
