Police, family looking for Elyria man who escaped while still handcuffed

ELYRIA — Elyria police and a man's family are both searching for him after he escaped from police with his hands cuffed behind his back on Monday night. Police said in a news release Tuesday that they were "actively looking for" Donte Parker II, 23, who has several felony warrants for his arrest, after he escaped from Elyria police officers on Monday night while wearing handcuffs. Nearly 24 hours after his escape Parker, of Elyria, still had not been found and his family was out searching for him. His mother fears he jumped or fell into the Black River. Tanya Charlton, Parker's mother, said that when she first spoke with police, they had told her that her son had jumped into the river. "They said he fell in the river and now they're changing their story to some bull----," Charlton said. "They only looked for two hours, two f------ hours. Why did they stop, is it because he's a felon? Because he's Black?" Elyria police Capt. James Welsh said that Parker had first been arrested at an apartment on 290 Washington Ave. before escaping from police and running across the street. He said that the department had obtained surveillance footage which showed Parker running away from Washington Avenue toward the treeline at the top of the valley leading down to the Black River, but he had not been seen on video or by officers actually heading into the trees or valley. "That's all we have at this point," Welsh said. "We don't have any video or any confirmation that he (Parker) went into the river." If Parker did enter the icy water though, Charlton said, he was wearing only sweatpants and a T-shirt and had his hands cuffed behind his back. Welsh said that police and other first responders searched the area extensively until about midnight on Monday, using drones with thermal cameras and officers with flashlights checking the hillside. As to why the search was halted on Monday, Welsh said it was only because the darkness and dangerous conditions on the hillsides was making the search unsafe. "No matter what the circumstances are, we value all human life the same and that we are going to make every effort to search for Donte," Welsh said. "Not because he has arrest warrants, but just to make sure that he is safe." He said that although the police did not have a specific reason to believe Parker had gone into the water, the department contacted Elyria fire to have rescue teams check the water below where Parker was seen running. "Just make sure that we're doing everything that we possibly can, we contacted (Elyria fire) and they had rescuers with harnesses that were able to repel down to the river bank and check," Welsh said. "There are some icy conditions out there right now, the river is somewhat covered in ice, but there are some cracks and, and things of that nature that we were able to look through and we didn't see anybody in the water or anything at this point." Welsh said that the search for Parker would continue this morning. "Again we have no confirmation that he went in the water, but we can't say for certain," Welsh said. "So we are going to take every step to make sure that didn't happen." Though she does believe her son was in the Black River on Monday, Charlton said she felt that he had gotten out and gotten to help somehow. "Somebody found my son," Charlton said. "I wish they would call me and tell me because somebody was out here and they helped him." Charlton searched all along the banks of the Black River on Tuesday, calling out "Donte" over the icy water. She said he will continue to do so until her son is home. "Whoever's helping my son or if he's out here somewhere; I just I love him so much and I'm praying for him to just come home," she said. "He can always come home. I've always told him, no matter what, you can come home and we gonna fight through this with anything. We fought through a lot of things and we can get through this too, but I need my son to come home. I need him to just call me and let me know." According to police, they first arrested Parker on Monday night just before 9 p.m. during a wellness check to an apartment on Washington Avenue. Police said they found Parker hiding in the apartment and that he had several felony warrants, so they arrested him and placed him in handcuffs. While leaving the apartment, Parker escaped and ran from police, still handcuffed. Elyria police filed additional charges against Parker including having weapons under disability, escape and obstructing official business, all felonies. Police did not say what the initial felony warrants out for Parker's arrest were for. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.