U.S. Marshals join search for escaped Philadelphia inmate Gino Hagenkotter

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The search continues for an inmate who escaped from a Philadelphia prison.

The U.S. Marshals have joined the effort now that it’s been more than a day since Gino Hagenkotter was last in custody.

Hagenkotter, 34, was in custody for retail thefts. He will now be facing much more serious charges.

He fled from the Riverside Correctional Facility before noon Thursday, dropping his orange jumpsuit before taking off.

He was last seen on surveillance video in the city’s Holmesburg neighborhood Thursday afternoon wearing a white shirt, dark-colored pants and boots.

Hagenkotter escaped while on work detail outside the nearby Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center. He asked a corrections officer if he could use the restroom, then climbed a fence and fled.

“In this case, you gave an individual an opportunity, and he took it,” Philadelphia Prisons Department Commissioner Blanche Carney said in a news conference Thursday.

Police say Hagenkotter does not have “any dangerous history,” but officials warned he should not be approached, and urged anyone who sees him to call police.

It’s the second escape from a prison on State Road in six months.

In May, Ameen Hurst and Nasir Grant broke free.

They were being held for much more serious crimes: Grant was being held on gun and drug charges, while Hurst was charged with four murders. Both were caught within 10 days.

A woman briefly escaped the same jail in September by scaling two fences topped by razor wire.

Meanwhile, a corrections officer told Action News reporter Maggie Kent that there are issues nearly every day at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, which is near Riverside and the PICC.

We’ve also learned from sources that man was beaten to death at Curran-Fromhold around 4 a.m. Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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