Some members of the public believe a man captured on home surveillance cameras entering homes in the Nu’uuli, Malaeimi, and Tafuna areas last week is an inmate.
One homeowner said that the suspect stole a speaker and drill, and also removed a closed circuit TV system. The image captured in the footage resembles an inmate who escaped from TCF several times last year.
KHJ News asked both the Acting Commissioner of Public Safety Falana’ipupu Taase Sagapolutele and Acting Director of the Department of Corrections Vaipuna Foifua Foifua Jr. if there had been an inmate escape during the time of the break-ins.
The acting commissioner said when these reports surfaced, he checked with the Territorial Correctional Facility and was told that all inmates were accounted for at the time of the incidents.
Foifua said he, too, was made aware of the posts on social media but assured that no inmate had escaped TCF.
KHJ News provided him the name of the suspected inmate, Foifua, and confirmed that this person is no longer at the TCF. The individual was released at the beginning of the year after serving his prison sentence.
