Hostage Escapes Convicted Killer, Frantic 911 Calls Released
Timothy Buffington escaped from an Arkansas prison and kidnapped the woman.
— -- Newly released 911 calls reveal what happened when a convicted killer broke free from an Arkansas jail and kidnapped a woman who lived on prison grounds.
“He has four dogs, a shotgun, ammo and other keys,” the woman can be heard telling the 911 operator. “He can get more weapons. He can get more weapons. He has all our weapons, keys to my dad’s state vehicle, keys to get stuff out of the state vehicle, everything.”
“He’s in my home,” she says in the 911 call.
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The man she was referring to was Timothy Buffington, a 47-year-old convicted of murdering his ex-wife in 1998 who escaped from a prison in Pine Bluff, Ark., on Saturday evening.
Buffington, who is still on the loose, confronted the woman at her home in search of weapons and a ride, according to police.
“He attempted to take a woman and get her to drive him off the compound,” said Arkansas Department of Corrections spokeswoman Shea Wilson.
The woman was able to escape from Buffington, she told the 911 operator.
“I was kidnapped and I just got away,” she says in the call. “We need some assistance as soon as possible because he is armed and he will shoot. He has ammo and he has a shotgun.”
Surveillance video from Saturday night shows Buffington next went to another home located two miles away from the jail and knocked on the door while wearing camouflage clothing and holding a shotgun.
Buffington can be seen in the video growing frustrated when no one answered the door and even trying to break in the door.
Authorities believe that Buffington is still in the jail’s vicinity. The National Guard has been called into the search, sending helicopters to search for Buffington by air.
Buffington has been serving a 20-year prison sentence since 1999. He was transferred to the low-to-medium security prison in Pine Bluffs, from which he escaped, because of good behavior, authorities said.
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