By MATT THACKER
A Louisville man briefly escaped from New Albany Police Department custody Wednesday evening, but was quickly apprehended after he ran into a stopped car.
Shortly before 8 p.m., the New Albany Police Department’s FLEX unit officers were investigating a disturbance in the 100 block of Erni Avenue, according to a NAPD news release.
While police sought information from the people involved, an officer noticed 29-year-old Edward Lee Wardford trying to walk away from the scene. According to the report, officers repeatedly told the man to stop, but he did not comply with the orders. After eventually being stopped, Wardford reportedly gave police a fake name.
Wardford, who lives at the 3600 block of Elderwood Way in Louisville, had been permanently banned from the city’s public housing areas on March 9, 2006, following a shooting incident in the Broadmeade Public Housing area.
Police arrested Wardford for class D felony criminal trespass for being on public housing property and class B misdemeanor false reporting for giving a fake name.
Officers transported Wardford to the Floyd County Jail to be booked in. While he was being held in the receiving area outside the jail, he allegedly ran from the officer that transported him to the jail.
NAPD Capt. Keith Whitlow said the officer was in the process of taking off Wardford’s handcuffs when he fled.
Still in handcuffs, Wardford ran north on Scribner Drive, and according to Whitlow, looked back at the pursuing officer and ran into the side of a car that was stopped in traffic on West Spring Street.
Wardford was captured and booked into jail with an additional charge of class C felony escape. Prosecutors in Floyd County Circuit Court filed a notice on Thursday to seek an enhanced penalty based on his prior conviction.
In relation to the March 2006 shooting, Wardford pleaded guilty to class D felony criminal recklessness and was sentenced to 80 days in jail.
Since 2007, Wardford has been arrested three times for criminal trespass. He was sentenced to one year probation for the first offense, while the others were settled by agreement out of court.
