Officials are staying tight-lipped about the escape of a “dangerous” prisoner and the more than 12-hour manhunt that followed.
Kevin Clarke-McNeil escaped the Northeast Correctional Facility in Pictou County around 8:30 p.m. on Friday.
Police received numerous calls of sightings throughout the province until Guysborough RCMP received a report of a suspicious fire at 8:27 a.m. Saturday.
This was followed by further reports of an ATV on a roadway and a stolen ATV, all within Guysborough County.
Clarke-McNeil was apprehended on the MacDonald Cove Road, east of Sheet Harbour in Halifax Regional Municipality, at approximately 9:45 a.m Saturday.
The Nova Scotia Justice Department said Clarke-McNeil is originally from Ontario and has been incarcerated at the facility since December 2019.
He was previously incarcerated at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, and in December 2019 Clarke-McNeil was charged in relation to an assault of a 46-year-old male inmate by 15 people at the facility.
Nova Scotia’s Department of Justice would only confirm that a criminal investigation and a Correction Services internal review are underway.
They would not provide information on how Clarke-McNeil escaped or how he evaded capture overnight.
The Nova Scotia RCMP told Global News they were continuing to investigate and didn’t have details on any charges.
Clarke-McNeil incurred minor, non-life-threatening injuries in his arrest, police said.
— With files from Aya Al-Hakim and Sean Boynton