Caught on camera: judge chases inmates escaping courtroom

CHEHALIS, Wash. (KGW/NBC News) Two prisoners who attempted to flee a Washington state courtroom are behind bars again, thanks in part to a judge who chased after them.

Video shows Judge R.W. Buzzard throwing off his robe and chasing 22-year-old Tanner Jacobson and 28-year-old Kodey Howard after the pair, still in handcuffs, run Buzzard’s courtroom toward a building exit.

“We were sitting there on the benches together, he’s like, he’s like ‘I’m gonna run,'” Tanner Jacobson said.

“I said what am I doing, what did I just do? I gotta go with it now, there’s nothing. I can’t stop right here,” Kodey Howard said.

Jacobson was in the lead while bounding down four flights of stairs, but the judge closed in on Howard and grabbed him just as he was about to exit the courthouse.

“I just wanted to follow them, find out where they went, so they could be apprehended,” the judge said.