
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994                   TAG: 9406210106
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MENTAL PATIENT PULLS KNIFE, ESCAPES IN CAR

MARION - Authorities were searching for a Southwest Virginia Mental Health Institute patient who escaped while being returned to the facility from a local hospital.

Jason Vick, 19, escaped Thursday morning after pulling a homemade knife on two psychiatric aides who were driving him back from the hospital, where he underwent medical tests, said Sgt. R.L. McKinnon of the Smyth County Sheriff's Department.

Vick demanded the workers drive him to Tennessee, McKinnon said. They managed to talk Vick into dropping them off alongside the road before he drove off, McKinnon said.

Authorities were searching several counties in Southwest Virginia and Tennessee. McKinnon said South Carolina authorities also have been notified of the escape. He said Vick's last known address is Spartanburg, S.C.

Tom Totten, acting director at the mental institute, declined to elaborate on why Vick was a patient at the facility, citing confidentiality rules. Totten also wouldn't comment on how Vick may have obtained the knife.

Vick, who authorities consider dangerous, is described as 5 feet 10 inches tall and about 145 pounds.

|- Associated Press

by CNB