Update 6:28 pm, Tuesday
An escaped inmate is back in custody, twelve hours after deputies say he scaled a T-V tower to break free. The Union County Sheriff's Office says it happened just after 1 a.m. this morning at the Union County Detention Center work camp on Jonesville Highway.
An incident report says a passer-by reported seeing a man in orange pants running out of the woods. Jail Director Neil McKeown says a head-count showed Solomon Gore missing from the minimum security work-release facility. News Channel 7's cameras were the only ones there when deputies hauled him in after receiving a tip he was at a home on Spring Street. Gore was serving 60 days for marijuana possession and providing false information, but now authorizes say he's looking at seven to ten years for escape if convicted, and assault and battery charges after spitting on a News Channel 7 photographer. McKeown says, "After reviewing the cameras, we found out he scaled up a wall and over some razor wire and onto the roof and jumped off the back of the facility." News Channel 7 asked how that could happen. "This is a work camp and pretty much minimum security. The fences do have a little bit of razor wire, but they can be scaled, you know, if the inmate truly wants to get out... with our limited staffing,” says McKeown. McKeown says they are doing the best they can with budget constraints, but that they facility is old and understaffed.
Gore is also wanted for a parole violation in Spartanburg County.
**Update 1:45 p.m.** <\strong>
The Union Detention Center director tells News Channel 7 that Gore was in custody for drug charges. He says that Gore was a minimum security inmate. Authorities also tell News Channel 7 that it would have been 2 more hours before they would have done head check to account for all inmates so they are fortunate that the person who drove by saw Gore and reported it.
While Gore was taken into custody he spit on News Channel 7 photojournalist Jason Parker. Parker has filed a police report.
The Union County Sheriff's Office says it has found a prisoner who escaped from the detention center.
Deputies found Solomon Maurice Gore, 18, at a home in Union County.
Gore was apparently spotted by a woman traveling on Highway 176 early Tuesday morning.
A woman says she was driving when she saw a man run onto the highway from some woods. The man was wearing a white t-shirt and orange pants and the driver says she nearly hit him.
Officers at the Union County Detention Center checked and found Gore missing. A Detention Center officer believes Gore used a TV antenna to climb up an outside wall onto a roof top. Gore was then able to get past razor wire to escape.
The Union County Sheriff's Office says Gore was being held on family court bench warrants. There was also a hold on Gore from Spartanburg County over some alleged violations there.
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