Las Vegas police have apprehended a man who escaped prison earlier this week while serving a life sentence for a deadly 2007 explosion outside a Las Vegas Strip resort.
Porfirio Duarte-Herrera, 42, was taken into custody by patrol officers “without incident,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a tweet at around 10:30 p.m. local time Wednesday (1:30 a.m. ET Thursday.)
It is not yet clear what led up to the arrest or how authorities tracked down Duarte-Herrera, who had been on the run since at least Tuesday. The LVMPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Duarte-Herrera escaped from the Southern Desert Correctional Center in Indian Springs and was discovered missing during the 7 a.m. count Tuesday, according to the Nevada Corrections Department.
Search teams had been looking for the escaped convict, whom the department described as a “medium-security inmate,” and a retake warrant was issued for his capture.
Las Vegas police had announced just over two hours before Duarte-Herrera was taken into custody that federal authorities were offering a combined $30,000 reward for information leading to his capture. They had warned anyone who spotted him not to approach the escaped inmate and to call 911 immediately.
Earlier this week, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said in a statement that his office learned Tuesday that the inmate had been missing since “early in the weekend,” as he branded the incident “unacceptable.” He said he had ordered the Corrections Department to launch a thorough investigation into what happened.
Duarte-Herrera, who arrived at the Corrections Department in February 2010 from Clark County, had been serving a life sentence for murder with use of a deadly weapon.
He and Omar Rueda-Denvers were convicted of planting a pipe bomb that killed hot dog stand vendor Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio in a parking structure of the Luxor hotel-casino in 2007.
Prosecutors had said the motive was revenge against Dorantes Antonio, 24, who was dating Rueda-Denvers’ ex-girlfriend.
Rueda-Denvers, 47, remains behind bars at a separate state prison, according to Corrections Department records.