Today in "your tax dollars at work" news, a suspect charged with murder in Minnesota has been released from jail due to a "clerical error", just two days after he was arrested.
28 year old Kevin Mason was recently arrested in Indiana on a murder warrant after a two year manhunt. Then, he was promptly mistakenly released from jail, NBC News wrote this week.
Now, authorities are on the hunt for him in Indiana again. They have kept his accidental release quiet for six days, supposedly to gain a "tactical advantage" over him, the article says.
Colonel James Martin with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office described his arrest warrants: "One being for homicide, one being for a parole violation, and the other being for a firearms possession."
Mason was charged with second degree murder "in connection with a shooting in June 2021 in the parking lot of the Shiloh Temple in Minneapolis that killed Dontevius Ahmad Catchings," the report says.
Martin said this week: "On Sept. 12 one of our inmate records clerks thought she was correcting different bookings for Mr. Mason. She removed two of the holds leaving one additional hold for Mr. Mason. The next day on Sept. 13, Ramsey County, out of Minnesota, lifted the last and final hold that we had booked on for Mr. Mason."
"Our clerk that was reviewing it sees three Minnesota holds, didn’t realize what she was doing obviously. It's a critical error, critical mistake. They’re identified very specifically by the originating agency that did it. They have a specific ID number, they’re all different and the case numbers are all different," Martin added.
Ramsey County lifted their hold on Mason as a result of the error, freeing him.
Martin said: "This was an error. This should have not happened. Mason should not have been release from out custody. This was discovered shortly after he was released."
Since then, authorities have been engaged in an "around the clock" manhunt. They suspect he is in Indianapolis and that people are actively helping him evade arrest.
"I also want to assure the public we will not rest until he’s captured," Martin concluded.
Well, that makes us feel better...
