WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Two men are in custody after a pursuit ended at an assisted living facility in West Palm Beach on Thursday, deputies said.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Teri Barbera said the situation started at about noon when deputies spotted a vehicle in the 6300 block of Forest Hill Boulevard in Greenacres that matched the description of one suspected in a string of shoplifting cases.
Agents in unmarked vehicles and the sheriff's office helicopter then pursued three people who were inside the vehicle.
The sheriff's office said the three suspects eventually exited the vehicle in the 2000 block of N Congress Avenue and fled on foot with the agents chasing behind them.
The suspects then entered the nearby Colonial Assisted Living at 2090 N Congress Ave.
"With the assistance of the helicopter, K9 and the city of West Palm Beach Police, a perimeter was established," Barbera said in a statement.
At least one worker at the assisted living center saw the suspects try to elude deputies.
"They came in through our first-floor front doors, and they circled through the entire first floor of the building," Portia Surtain, an administrator at Colonial Assisted Living, said. "Then they went upstairs through our staircase, and they were hiding in some of the empty residents' rooms. They found them on the second floor — one was in a resident's room, one was hiding in a hallway."
The men arrested have been identified as Marcus Darrell Logan, 35, and Ernest Lamarr Jackson Jr., 35.
The sheriff's office said the female suspect in the case escaped, but they know her identity.
All of the residents of the facility were taken to a dining room while the building was searched by law enforcement.
A WPTV news crew spotted about 18 law enforcement units, including West Palm Beach police, at the assisted living facility.
The sheriff's office said they recovered the suspects' vehicle and some stolen property.