OKANOGAN — A 15-year-old inmate at the Okanogan County Juvenile Detention Center is accused of choking and threatening to kill a female guard and then escaping before leading police on a foot chase.

The juvenile was found a couple hours later hiding under a deck at a residence and taken back to the detention center.

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers gave this account of the incident:

Around 1:30 p.m. Sunday, the detention center reported that a male prisoner had escaped. The boy overpowered a female guard, choking and threatening to kill her.

The boy had asked a female guard for some pencils, then held the pencils to the woman's neck. She was able to get free from the teen and lock herself in a bathroom.

The boy was then able to get out of a secure area, using keys that were left in the door to the control room, and left the juvenile center through a back door, taking the female officer’s purse.

Only one other guard was working at the center at the time, and he was overseeing outdoor recreation time.

Sheriff’s deputies searched the area around the center but were unable to find him.

Then around 3:15 p.m., a sheriff’s deputy and his patrol dog were heading home when he saw the suspect standing along Highway 97 in Omak, just below WalMart. The deputy, along with other deputies who responded to the area, chased the suspect. He was seen running to a residence, where deputies found him under the back deck.

The suspect, Johnny M. Delossantos of Pateros, was booked into the juvenile center on suspicion of first-degree assault and escape. He had originally been arrested on July 10 for stealing two cars in Pateros.

Rogers said Delossantos told deputies that he had been planning the escape. He called a taxi to drive him from Okanogan to Omak, and paid for the ride with money in the guard’s purse, he added.

The female guard at the detention center was shaken up, but not injured, Rogers said.

Michelle McNiel: 664-7152

mcniel@wenatcheeworld.com