CLAREMORE, Okla. — For the second time since October, a patient at Grand Lake Horizons mental health facility walked out.
"There's no one armed, or even anybody prepared there to deal with violent confrontation," Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said. "It's almost a guarantee that's going to happen."
2 News shared the story from the first patient walkaway from the facility just north of Claremore on Highway 88 in October.
"This is exactly the nightmare scenario that we worry about," Rogers County District Attorney Matt Ballard said at the time. "It's the type of thing that keeps me up at night."
Fast-forward to December 23: the second walkaway occurred late that night. Sheriff Walton tells us William Timothy Harrison used a dumbbell to break out a window, which he crawled out of, leading to a big cut on his arm. Harrison escaped from Horizons, ran across Highway 88 with that bloody arm, and made it into a field on the other side.
Deputies used a drone to find Harrison in that field. He now faces multiple charges, including assaulting a police officer. Sheriff Walton voiced his frustration after the first walkaway and again after this one.
"They take somebody with a violent criminal history and put them in a facility that they can walk out of. Or easily break out of," Sheriff Walton said. "Our concern is that with two of these within a very short period of time, honest, good hardworking people living in that surrounding area are going to be affected by this."
Sheriff Walton says his office had a conversation with Horizons after the first incident and thought things would improve.
"They were apologetic. They took ownership of the situation," Sheriff Walton said. "They made indications of changes that would better enhance this stuff. What they've done since then, I don't know."
His focus now shifts to community safety and the safety of his deputies.
"When we have four and five individuals on patrol that take care of 711 square miles serving 100,000 people, we certainly don't need to take on the additional responsibility of who's going to catch the walkaway from Grand Horizons tonight," Sheriff Walton said.
2 News reached out to Grand Lake Horizons for comment on this story, but they were closed for the New Year's holiday. We will include their response when we hear back.
TJ ECKERT | Senior Reporter/Anchor
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