Area law enforcement officials spent part of Tuesday morning searching for an escaped prison inmate in College Station before determining that witnesses had seen a man who only looked like the inmate.
College Station police received several calls around 8:35 a.m. Tuesday from residents who believed they saw Arcade Joseph Comeaux Jr. at a Taco Cabana on Texas Avenue, said Lt. Rodney Sigler, a spokesman for the department.
Comeaux, 49, escaped from custody Monday after pulling a gun on two guards who were taking him from a prison unit in the Huntsville area to one in Beaumont, officials said.
Officials from the Bryan Police Department, Texas A&M University Police Department, Brazos County Sheriff's Office, Brazos County Constable Offices and the Department of Public Safety helped College Station police and the Texas Division of Criminal Justice comb the area for the man.
"The search was a combination of setting up some perimeters and searching on foot," Sigler said. "Multiple officers and detectives were sent out there."
Within three hours, officials had found the man who had been seen at the restaurant, but it wasn't Comeaux.
During the search, College Hills Elementary School was locked down, and all other Bryan and College Station schools were put on high alert, officials said.
Sigler said that even though the man wasn't Comeaux, the outcome was positive.
"It's good that we were able to locate him," he said. "It would have been rather frustrating had we not. We would have had to go on for an undetermined amount of time with the thought the fugitive was him."
Sigler said local authorities have no reason to believe Comeaux is in the area, but encouraged residents to contact police if they think they've seen him.
Meanwhile, the search for Comeaux continues, particularly in the Houston and Baytown areas, said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Division of Criminal Justice.
All available Texas Division of Criminal Justice officers are helping in the search, she said, and tracking dogs are being used. The agency had received about 100 tips in the case by Tuesday evening, she said.
Comeaux was sentenced to life in prison in 1998 for sexual abuse of a child in Brazos County after being convicted in the first of two 1997 cases.
Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner said that in both cases the child was under the age of 14.
The victims have been notified of Comeaux's escape, and police will monitor their residences until Comeaux is captured, officials said.
Before fleeing the TDCJ van he was being transferred in, Comeaux took the guards hostage and made them drive him to Baytown, officials said.
Once there, Comeaux handcuffed the guards together, placed them in the back of the van and took one of the man's gray uniforms, a 12-gauge shotgun and two semiautomatic pistols.
The guards were discovered unharmed about an hour later.
Comeaux is black, about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds.
Law enforcement agencies are offering at least $15,000 in rewards to people who have information that will lead to Comeaux's arrest.
Anyone who believes they have seen Comeaux should call 911 or Crime Stoppers at 800-832-8477.
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