SALISBURY, N.C. – A man in handcuffs inside the Rowan County Magistrate’s Office managed to escape this morning. Sheriff’s deputies say 21-year-old Jameel Kenneth Stephens-Maddox was handcuffed to a metal bar in the prisoner holding area. While deputies completed detention paperwork, Stephens-Maddox worked his hands out of the cuffs, exited the door to the Magistrate’s Office, jumped onto a patrol vehicle parked in the fenced-in area and climbed over the razor wire-topped fence.
Deputies say Stephens-Maddox may have then climbed onto the roof of the Magistrate’s Office and jumped to the ground outside the fenced-in area.
Deputies were alerted as well as the Salisbury Police Department and both agencies began searching the area.
Stephens-Maddox was initially in custody after being arrested around 10:30 Wednesday morning at Longview Avenue in Salisbury on seven outstanding warrants for crimes including assault on a female, firearms possession by a felon, resisting arrest and more. He was arrested at the Longview Ave. location after fleeing from a home on Park Avenue in Salisbury before ultimately escaping from the Magistrate’s Office.
Stephens-Maddox has not been located at this time. If you have information about where he is, call 911 immediately.
