Armed Forensic Patient Holds Preschool Hostage, Tasers Deputy
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – An inmate who escaped from Dominican Hospital was apprehended in a home on the evening of Nov. 29 following a five hour manhunt. During his escape, Maurice Ainsworth tased a deputy and shot a bystander with the deputy’s service weapon.
Ainsworth was taken to the hospital for treatment due to knee problems, Central Coast News reports. He attacked the deputy while being shackled and escaped from the hospital.
The hospital and several schools in the surrounding area were locked down following the incident. Ainsworth forced his way into the Secret Garden Too Preschool and held a teacher and two students hostage. He attempted to steal the teacher’s car, but fled in the opposite direction as police approached the school. No one at the school was harmed.
Ainsworth was in jail awaiting a transfer to state prison to serve a three year sentence for armed robbery and home invasion. In January, he tied up homeowners in Boulder Creek and burglarized their house.
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