Posted on 07/28/2005 12:26:42 PM PDT by SmithL
PITTSBURGH - A fugitive wanted for months in a Detroit homicide was arrested in Pittsburgh on drug charges, but he gave a fake name and was mistakenly allowed to go free.
U.S. marshals were still searching Thursday for Dana Kennedy, five days after his weekend release.
Kennedy is wanted in a Feb. 1 drive-by killing outside a Detroit liquor store, police said.
He was arrested Saturday for allegedly carrying a plastic bag of marijuana. But when he was booked, Kennedy gave officials the name of James Wroe, a fake age and a phony Social Security number. Officials also failed to identify Kennedy by his fingerprints.
Later that day, a district judge released Kennedy on his own recognizance and he's been missing ever since.
The Allegheny County Central Identification Section sent Kennedy's prints to the FBI's national criminal records database, but center coordinator David Hungerman said it never heard back from the FBI - a position disputed by the FBI.
Thomas E. Bush III, assistant director of the bureau's Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, W.Va., said his office took less than an hour to run Kennedy's fingerprints, determine he was a fugitive and transmit the information to Pittsburgh, Detroit police and U.S. marshals in Michigan.
"I can't speak to what they did," Bush said. "Our system did exactly what it's supposed to do."
Now all of the criminals will be giving fake names
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