Authorities in Oklahoma are searching for two possibly armed and dangerous inmates who escaped after stealing a prison transport van overnight.
Major County Sheriff Steve Randolph says inmates Andrew Foy, 32, and Darren Walp, 37, overpowered two transport officers about 3.30am and took the Inmate Services Corporation van on US 412 in Orienta.
Authorities say the van was found abandoned about 13 miles away in Ringwood, and an empty gun holster was found inside.
On the lam: Inmates Darren Walp (left), 37, and Andrew Foy (right), 32, are being sought in Oklahoma after pulling off an overnight escape from a prison transport van
Foy’s final destination was supposed to be the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department (pictured) in his native Wyoming
Walp was supposed to be transported to the Seward County Sheriff’s Department in Kansas (pictured)
An oilfield company truck – a white 2017 Ford sitting 15 – was later reported stolen in the area. The missing vehicle has been described as a maroon 2006 Dodge Ram with Oklahoma tag DEL244, reported NewsOn6.
Authorities say the inmates were being taken by a transport company to a correctional facility in Kansas.
The van had been scheduled to pick up additional inmates in Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas.
Foy is described as a white male with blue eyes, standing at 6 feet tall and weighing 210lbs. His final destination was supposed to be the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department in Wyoming.
Ex-convict: Walp has a long criminal record that includes bias intimidation charges for yelling racial slurs in New Jersey (he is pictured in a mugshot in 2013) and felony criminal endangerment charges in Montana
Walp was only described by officials as a white male with a medium build. An online inmate database, however, revealed that he is 6-foot-1, weighing 225lbs with brown hair and hazel eyes.
Walp was supposed to be transported to the Seward County Sheriff’s Department in Kansas.
It was not immediately clear where the inmates were from or what crimes they were convicted of committing.
According to an article published in the Billings Gazette in January 2015, Walp was arrested and charged with felony criminal endangerment charges after being involved in an armed standoff with police in Montana that lasted nearly 20 hours.
Walp’s lengthy criminal history, spanning multiple states, also included bias intimidation charges filed against him in New Jersey in 2013.
In one incident, which had occurred in June 2013, Walp, from Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, was attending a Toby Keith concert in New Jersey when he began waving a Confederate flag and hurling racial epithets at strangers, reported NJ.com at the time.
Less than two months later, Walp was again arrested for allegedly yelling racial slurs without any provocation at a black man driving with a child in Camden, New Jersey.
In 2015, Walp was handed a sentence of up to 14 months in prison for the flag incident.
Little is known about Andrew Foy’s background beyond the fact that he is originally from Cheyenne, Wyoming.