Escaped Bowie County inmate Omarion Owens captured after overnight manhunt
TEXARKANA, Texas — A Bowie County inmate who escaped from custody while being treated at CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System on Wednesday night was found hiding at an apartment complex about 2 a.m. Thursday after an overnight manhunt, authorities said.
Omarion Lamon Owens, 22, was found on a second-floor stairway landing at the back of an apartment complex off Kennedy Lane, according to a Bowie County Sheriff’s Office news release. He was arrested without incident and returned to the Bowie County Jail.
Owens escaped about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday. He had been taken from the jail to the hospital for treatment of what the sheriff’s office described as an alleged hand injury he suffered while incarcerated.
The sheriff’s office said it soon became clear Owens had planned the escape. He told family members where he was, and they arrived at the hospital. A Bowie County jailer allowed Owens to have contact with his family, which the sheriff’s office said violated its policy.
Owens then removed his restraints while using the restroom and ran from the hospital on foot, according to the release.
He discarded his orange jail clothing and was spotted several times wearing only boxer shorts, the sheriff’s office said.
Officers set up a perimeter around the St. Michael Drive area overnight, including Galleria Oaks, Cowhorn Creek, Central Mall and the hotels near the Texarkana Convention Center. K9 teams and a drone searched wooded areas along Cowhorn and Swampoodle creeks, according to scanner traffic. At one point, a K9 tracked a scent across a golf course toward the back of a hotel before officers lost the trail in thick woods.
The sheriff’s office thanked the Texarkana, Texas, Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, Nash Police Department, Texarkana, Arkansas, Police Department, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Hooks Police Department and Wake Village Police Department for their help.
“The combined law enforcement effort and saturation of the area made it possible for this offender to be captured,” the sheriff’s office said in the release.
Owens now faces a new escape charge. He was already in jail awaiting trial on charges that include:
- Theft of a firearm
- Aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury (two counts)
- Aggravated robbery (two counts)
- Injury to a child or elderly individual
- Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (two counts)
- Escape (from a previous incident)
- Deadly weapon in a penal institution
- Assault causing bodily injury
- Bond surrender for aggravated assault
- Bond surrender for aggravated robbery (two counts)
Owens is accused of shooting into a Texarkana home in March 2025, wounding a woman and her 10-year-old daughter.
His earlier escape charge stems from June, when he was one of several Bowie County inmates accused of using pieces of blanket fabric to defeat their cell door locks. Earlier this month, he was charged with having a deadly weapon in a penal institution after jailers searched his cell and found a cell phone hidden under a mop bucket and a shank made from about 5 1/2 inches of sharpened metal wire.
The investigation into how Owens prepared for the escape and whether anyone helped him is ongoing, according to the sheriff’s office.