Toronto police locate man who escaped from custody

Toronto police say they have found a man who escaped from custody on Monday.

Police issued a public safety alert on Tuesday for Delroy Flowers, 41, who had been last seen on Monday at around 9:15 a.m. in the Ossington Avenue and Queen Street West area.

Flowers was ordered into the custody of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and he left without permission.

This marks the third time that Flowers has gone missing and police have had to issue a public safety alert. He previously went missing in November 2016 and November 2017.

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Global News contacted CAMH to ask about how Flowers was able to leave the facility multiple times. A spokesperson said in a written statement that confidentiality rules prohibit CAMH from discussing specific information about patients, adding safety is the organization’s “highest priority.”

“Patients are granted grounds and community passes according to a strict clinical protocol, which determines if and when patients are granted community passes based on how they are progressing with their recovery while at CAMH. Occasionally patients do not return from community passes when they are due back and the police are notified immediately,” the statement said.

“Our careful system of evidence-based clinical evaluation related to the granting of escorted and unescorted community passes has been in place for many years and there has never been an incident of harm to the public during an unescorted leave of absence by a CAMH patient.”