LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — The U.S. Marshals say they've taken into custody an escaped inmate who triggered a manhunt in Lexington County on Friday morning.
U.S. Marshals said 42-year-old Shaun Wayne Wiles was arrested on Sharon Acres Lane near Gaston around 1:15 p.m.
More details are expected soon.
According to a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service, the agents were in the Sharon Acres Lane area of southern Lexington County, with the search appearing to have begun before 9 a.m.
The agency said its presence and that of several agencies, which included the FBI, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), Lexington County Sheriff's Department, and members of the Carolina Regional Fugitive Task Force, were related to the search for Wiles, who escaped from the Clarendon County Detention Center around 1 a.m. on Nov. 10.
SLED helicopters flew over the area for hours as officers kept searching for the man. Friday morning, SLED said it was assisting the Marshals through an aerial search and on the ground with a bloodhound unit.
School 'lockout' protocol lifted
Lexington One schools near the search, including Forts Pond Elementary, Pelion Elementary, Pelion Middle, and Pelion High schools were initially placed in "secure" mode while it was still underway. The mode, also known as "lockout," meant that operations inside the school continued normally but no one was allowed to enter or exit the building.
The move, which was requested by law enforcement in the area, was precautionary according to the school system.
Following the inmate's capture, the secure protocol was lifted
What we know about Shaun Wayne Wiles
Wiles managed to escape into the woods near the Clarendon County Detention Center and evade K-9 units that were sent to find him. Hours after the escape, officers said a woman loading groceries found him in the trunk of her car, and the man quickly ran away from that scene.
Investigators later confirmed through a video that he stole a farmer's pickup truck and was believed to have left the general area.
Wiles was in jail on a federal drug charge after being indicted last August along with several other defendants on allegations of trafficking meth and heroin.
This isn't the first time Wiles has made it out of detainment. The South Carolina Department of Corrections confirmed to News19 that Wells escaped twice from a state prison in 2003. He was recaptured each time a few days later. They add that after his second capture, he was moved to one of their most secure facilities to spend the rest of his sentence, which ended in 2015.
The U.S. Marshals were offering a $5,000 reward for information that led to Wiles' apprehension.