Eric Fountain Taken Under Court Street Bridge After Rochester Search
Eric Fountain was taken back into custody on Saturday after Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies found him hiding in a drainage pipe under the Court Street Bridge in Rochester. The 37-year-old of Scottsville had escaped while in handcuffs during processing at the public safety building.
Deputies said they located Fountain at 1:45 p.m. after an hours-long search that followed his escape and a brief foot chase, then a second run after a deputy was injured trying to catch him. Fountain had been taken to a local hospital for shoulder pain before he slipped away.
Lyell Avenue stop
Deputies said the case began around 3 a.m. on Saturday, when they got a report about a stolen vehicle being hit and stopped Fountain at a Lyell Avenue gas station. The sheriff’s office said he lied about his identity during the traffic stop and was found with illicit and prescription drugs, along with drug paraphernalia.
He was taken into custody after a short chase on foot and charged with stealing a vehicle and drug possession. That arrest set up the booking process that later became the point where he got away.
Court Street Bridge search
Fountain escaped while in handcuffs during processing at the public safety building, and a deputy trying to catch him was injured and went unconscious after hitting his head on the pavement. The injured deputy was later released from a local hospital.
Later on Saturday, Fountain was seen jumping a fence and running toward Court Street and the Genesee River. Law enforcement set up a perimeter, and cameras from the Monroe County Water Authority, along with the Greece Police Department’s tactical robot, helped investigators locate him under the bridge.
Monroe County CAP court
Rochester Fire Department crews assisted in the arrest, and Monroe County Sheriff’s Captain Matthew Kreuzer said Fountain will likely be taken to the Monroe County CAP court or to an arraignment for his federal warrant after his medical evaluation. Kreuzer said Fountain was also wanted by the United States Marshals after violating a previous probation warrant.
“Our internal investigations going to go, is going to go through, and they will find any kind of gaps in our security or processes right now, and we’ll make those adjustments.” He also said, “In this case here, I think, you know, there are we have more secure areas and less secure areas here that we do simple fingerprinting and booking.”
He added, “In this case here, I think, you know, we just had a suspect who, you know, normally it’d be a one on one. And in this case, he took advantage of the security,”
