Police: couple nabs runaway suspect

TAMPA - Police say they were finally able to catch a suspect, who escaped custody three times, with the help of a feisty couple in one East Tampa neighborhood.

When Debbie Hannah walked into her home Sunday evening, she suddenly came face to face with a man she didn't know.

"He pushed me out of the way and ran into the house," she said.

Hannah had no idea Alfred Davis had just escaped a trip to jail hours earlier, police said, getting away three times in one day.

Officers said they saw Davis, 30, relieving himself in front of a building in a parking lot in Ybor City, but when they tried to arrest him, Davis ran. Eventually they took him into custody and put him in a police car, but somehow he got away again.

"During the first arrest while he was in custody he escaped from the vehicle right now it's unclear if it was through a window or he was somehow able to get the door open but he did escape custody," TPD spokesperson Andrea Davis said.

A tip led police to a neighborhood in the 2200 block of Martin Luther King Blvd. Officer said they were close to snatching Davis, but again, Davis managed to slip away.

Hannah said when the suspect forced his way into her home, she yelled for her fiancé Al.

When I ran into the house behind the guy, Al jumped up and the guy said 'hide me, I'm hiding from the police' and that's when Al grabbed him," she said.

Al Acosta said he found himself wrestling Davis on their living room floor.

"We were going it at pretty good," Acosta said. "Really there wasn't much he could have done."

Tampa police were close behind, finally making the arrest—leaving two residents with quite a story to tell.

"First thing I did was call my mom and my kids and said 'oh my God you're not going to believe what just happened' and Al is so quiet, and everybody was going like 'no he didn't,'" Hannah said. "But, yes he did.

Davis is being held without bond on 15 charges including battery, burglary and disorderly conduct, jail records show. He's been arrested about 20 times in Hillsborough County in the past 10 years.