DETROIT — A man, about to be sentenced for armed robbery, stabbed a deputy sheriff several times in the neck with a plastic comb, took his uniform and vanished from a Detroit courthouse on Monday, Sept. 9.

Police believe the man rode seven floors down a prisoner transfer elevator and escaped from the rear of the courthouse and then proceeded to steal a minivan, after forcing the woman driver from the vehicle. 

The suspect was arrested later on Monday, after a large-scale manhunt.

Police finally caught up with him in a rundown area on the City’s east side.  His apprehension capped a 14-hour citywide search of rooftops, abandoned buildings and cemeteries.

Abraham Pearson, 25, who is also known as Derreck White, was facing 10 to 15 years in prison, after being convicted on August 26 of carjacking, armed robbery, unlawful driving away of a motor vehicle and weapons charges, according to court and jail electronic records.

Wayne County Sheriff’s spokesman Dennis Niemiec said Pearson had a lengthy criminal history and was on parole. 

A spokesman for DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital said the deputy who was attacked has been treated and discharged from the hospital.

Deputy Harrison Tolliver, 63, is a retired Detroit police officer, who joined the sheriff’s office last December.

He was transferring three prisoners, including Pearson, to a holding cell on Monday morning, Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon said.

As he took the handcuffs off of Pearson to put him in the cell, Pearson attacked him with a plastic comb that had been sharpened into a weapon, Napoleon said.

Pearson handcuffed the deputy and took part of his uniform, his keys, cell phone and radio, the sheriff’s office said. The other two prisoners did not intervene or leave the cell during the attack.