A former Arkansas police chief serving prison sentences for murder and rape posed as a law enforcement officer during his escape on Sunday. Grant Hardin donned a fake, makeshift uniform designed to mimic official law-enforcement gear before exiting the North Central Unit in Calico Rock through a controlled entryway just before 3pm, the Washington Post reports. Local sheriff's departments were alerted about two hours later. Stone County Sheriff Brandon Long says Hardin likely would've required a vehicle, "and whether he just steals a vehicle or he takes someone hostage with the vehicle is ... our biggest fear," per KFSM.
Hardin is considered "extremely dangerous and should not be approached," says the Stone County Sheriff's Office. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the first-degree murder of James Appleton in Garfield in 2017. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher in Rogers, for which he was serving 50 years. The former police officer had been fired by the Fayetteville Police Department for poor performance in 1991, per the Post. Five years later, he resigned from the Eureka Springs Police Department just as he was about to be fired for lying in a police report, per KFSM.
He was a constable for Benton County from 2008 to 2012, per KHBS. He later spent four months as Gateway's police chief in early 2016, before resigning yet again. He then reportedly went to work at a women's prison in Fayetteville, per the Arkansas Times. Prison is "full of a lot of people who just do bad things," former Benton County prosecutor Nathan Smith, who helped put Hardin behind bars, tells KHBS. "Grant's different. ... He's a sociopath." The Arkansas Department of Corrections says it's working with state police, local sheriff's offices, and other local agencies to put the 56-year-old back behind bars. Drones are searching the area around the prison, while authorities are searching vehicles. (More prison escape stories.)
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