Authorities are searching for a man they say escaped handcuffs and jumped the fence at the Rowan County Magistrate’s Office and ran after being arrested this morning.
It was the second time Wednesday that 21-year-old Jameel Kenneth Stephens-Maddox ran from authorities.
Deputies with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office went to a Park Avenue home Wednesday morning to serve seven outstanding warrants on Stephens-Maddox. As the deputies approached, Stephens-Maddox ran out the back door. They caught him at a Longview Avenue address.
Stephens-Maddox was taken to the Rowan County Magistrate’s Office and handcuffed to a metal bar in the prisoner holding area as deputies worked with the magistrate to complete service of the papers, have bond set and get an additional warrant for resisting arrest.
While the deputies were distracted, Stephens-Maddox was able to work his way out of the handcuffs. Once free from the handcuffs, he ran out the door, jumped onto a patrol vehicle parked in the fenced-in area of the Magistrate’s Office and got over the razor wire above the fence.
He may have been able to make his way to the roof of the Magistrate’s Office, and then jump to the ground outside the fenced in area, the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Rowan County Sheriff’s Deputies and Salisbury Police Officers were alerted and immediately began searching the area around the Magistrate’s Office for Stephens-Maddox.  
At present, Stephens-Maddox has not been located, and additional charges are pending, the Sheriff’s Office said.  Authorities ask anyone with information on his location to call 911.