A man accused of frightening residents in Philadelphia while wearing a Chucky-style mask, including an alleged attack involving a female jogger, has been arrested in Las Vegas after a two-week manhunt.
Zymire Hughes, 22, was taken into custody in Nevada on Tuesday night on an out-of-state warrant connected to the alleged aggravated assault of a 40-year-old woman on Aug. 12, the US Marshals Service announced.
“Tonight the fear that one man brought to the Philadelphia community comes to an end,” US Marshals Service official Robert Clark told reporters, according to NBC Philadelphia.
Authorities said the fugitive was located shortly after 8 p.m. ET Tuesday inside an apartment complex in Southeast Las Vegas, where he had allegedly been hiding.
“By hiding behind a Chucky-style Halloween mask, Hughes terrorized Philadelphia residents and believed he could evade law enforcement. He was wrong,” Clark said.
Hughes is currently being held at the Clark County Detention Center as officials move forward with plans to extradite him to Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia police had been searching for Hughes after investigators said a masked suspect roamed the City Hall area dressed like the notorious horror movie character and terrorized six people at random during a 15-minute incident on Aug. 12.
In one of the alleged encounters, Hughes, while wearing the mask, chased a 40-year-old woman who was jogging around 5:30 a.m. and made threatening comments, causing her to fall and suffer an injury, authorities said.
“Are you ready to die?” Hughes allegedly asked the unidentified woman while filming his sick intimidation.
Hughes had been visiting relatives in Philadelphia, but fled the city on Aug. 19, taking a complicated route home, jumping on a plane from Trenton, NJ, to Orlando, Fla.
He boarded another flight back to Las Vegas, where he had recently moved into a residence with his girlfriend, NBC Philadelphia reported.
Officials had feared Hughes had fled Philadelphia for either California or Nevada, where he had ties in both cities.
