HOLLISTER – Authorities are searching for an inmate who escaped from San Benito County jail Tuesday.
The inmate – identified as 37-year-old Daniel Lopez Zavala – clambered over an 8-foot-tall barbed-wire fence just before 2 a.m., the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office said in an advisory. He then ran northeast away from the jail, located at 710 Flynn Road.
Deputies, along with Hollister police officers, searched for Zavala but did not find him during an initial search.
During a second, more thorough search, canines picked up on Zavala’s scent and led authorities to his discarded pants in an open field and then to the 1800 block of Airway Drive. That’s where the sheriff’s office said it believes Zavala was picked up in a car.
“We are still actively searching for Mr. Zavala, and we will continue to utilize all leads and technology to track and apprehend him and anyone who is assisting him,” the sheriff’s office said in the advisory.
The sheriff’s office said Zavala does not pose a specific threat to the public, but he does have an “extensive criminal history,” including prior charges of shooting into an inhabited dwelling, gang-related assault with a firearm and battery with serious bodily injury.