Teen who escaped custody turns himself in

A Philadelphia teenage robbery suspect who escaped custody while handcuffed in West Philadelphia Wednesday has turned himself in early Friday.

Hasheem Singletary, 17, was in the custody of PTS Transportation, private contractors who were hired to transport him from the Florida to Philadelphiawhen he jumped out of a Kia operated by the contractors, police said.

His family told reporters that they had been urging the teen to turn himself in to prevent further violence, Singletary’s brother, Willie, told reporters.

“We are a close family and we work together, so we worked to make sure we got here safely. And, I’m happy not because of the situation, but this did not turn out like a Baltimore. This did not turn out like a Ferguson. The police department did exactly what they did best…,” said WillieSingletary.

Willie, incidentally, is a former Philadelphia traffic court judge scheduled to surrender to federal authorities to serve a prison term for lying to the FBI.

Hasheem Singletary is a suspect in three gunpoint robberies in Philadelphia.

He fled to Tennessee, and then to Florida where he was arrested in a stolen car, said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detective Division.

The contractors flew Singletary from Florida to JFK Airport in New York, and then from New York to Philadelphia. He was being driven to a police station at 55th and Pine for processing.

News crews showed pictures of Singletaryturning himself in with his lawyer at around 12:45 a.m. Friday. He was not wearing handcuffs in those televised images.