Who is Kevin Mason? Manhunt underway for murder suspect released from Indiana jail due to a clerical error
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: A wide-scale manhunt has been launched for a murder suspect who was mistakenly freed from Indiana jail due to a clerical error.
According to the Minnesota Police Department, Kevin Mason, 28, has been wanted since September 13.
Mason was apprehended based on the warrants for homicide, parole violation, and possession of a firearm in connection to a 2021 shooting in Minneapolis but is now released.
The US Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to Mason’s arrest. It is reported that the criminal may either be in the Indianapolis or Minneapolis areas.
When was Kevin Mason arrested?
According to NBC News, Mason was arrested on September 11 in Indianapolis and had been detained at the Adult Detention Center. However, he was accidentally released a couple of days later.
"On September 12, one of our inmate records clerks thought she was correcting different bookings for Mr Mason. She removed two of the holds leaving one additional hold for Mr Mason. The next day on September 13, Ramsey County, out of Minnesota, lifted the last and final hold that we had booked on for Mr Mason," Marion County Sheriff’s Office Col James Martin told reporters on Tuesday, September 19, as per NBC News.
He further added, "Our clerk that was reviewing it sees three Minnesota holds, didn’t realize what she was doing obviously. It's a critical error, critical mistake."
In a press release announced by the sheriff's office on Facebook, the two concerned employees were terminated on September 15 in relation to the incident.
A woman is arrested for assisting Kevin Mason
On Wednesday, September 20, authorities said that a woman, Desiree Oliver, 29, was arrested and charged with assisting Mason, Fox 59 reports.
“We’re going to be very aggressive in pursuing you,” Martin said on Thursday, September 21, per ABC News, referring to those thinking about assisting Mason. “We will find you. We will criminally charge you, just as we did Desiree Oliver.”
Why was the accidental release not disclosed?
The sheriff’s office said that the accidental release was not disclosed to the public until six days later so that it could be used as a “tactical advantage” to arrest the person of interest and prevent him from hiding, NBC News reported.
Why was Kevin Mason arrested?
In August 2021, Mason was charged in Minnesota’s Hennepin County District Court with second-degree intentional murder and illegal weapons possession over the shooting of Dontevius Ahmad Catchings in Minneapolis two months prior.
According to the murder charges, the duo got involved in a physical altercation over a gun outside of a funeral when gunfire erupted, resulting in Catchings’ death.
The mother of Dontevius Catchings, Sharita Catchings told WRTV, “To find out that they have finally caught this man that we’d been waiting on to get caught for all these years, two years, and for him to freely walk up out of there and have a freedom of joyness, just like, ‘I escaped my punishment.’ You know, it’s like a slap in our face all over again.”
