Elyria police: Donte Parker 'alive and continues to evade law enforcement'

Elyria police detectives on Monday confirmed that a man who escaped police custody a week earlier while handcuffed and in custody is alive and on the run. Donte Parker II, 23, "is alive and continues to evade law enforcement," Elyria police said in a news release. The release did not say how authorities know Parker is alive, following a week of searches in and around the Black River where he was last seen. Parker's girlfriend, 20-year-old Petra Pintar, "was reported missing by her family, and we believe that they are together," police said in the news release. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Parker and Pintar is asked to contact Elyria police Detective Jeb Larson at (440) 326-1211 or jlarson@cityofelyria.org, or call the Elyria Police Department at (440) 323-3302. Anonymous tips can also be submitted at www.cityofelyria.org/tips. Parker is wanted on multiple felony warrants as well as for an alleged federal probation violation. Elyria police charged him with having weapons under disability, escape and obstructing official business, all felonies.Elyria police took him into custody and handcuffed him Feb. 3 following a welfare check at an apartment on Washington Avenue in Elyria. They found Parker hiding under a bed with a loaded gun. A convicted felon from a Cuyahoga County case, Parker is not allowed to possess guns. Parker managed to escape from police while in custody, bursting out of a closed door and running from officers. He was last spotted on security camera footage running, shoeless, toward a treeline overlooking the Black River near Washington Avenue. Multiple first responders searched the area including the Black River but couldn't find him. The Lorain County Sheriff's Office and a North Ridgeville police K-9 joined the search for that same night, as did the Elyria Fire Department. Parker's mother feared that he had fallen into or jumped into the Black River, which at the time was cold and full of ice. She walked the area multiple times in the days after he disappeared, calling out his name. Elyria police are conducting an administrative review into whether officers followed department policy while arresting Parker, Capt. Bill Lantz said previously. Pintar does not have a criminal record in Lorain County. Court records in a 2023 misdemeanor speeding case said she was living on South Lake Street in South Amherst at that time.