By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Alabaster Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service apprehended a man wanted for escaping from a Decatur work release center on Dec. 4 after learning the man was staying at the Shelby Motor Lodge hotel.

The two law enforcement agencies arrested 21-year-old Tyler Russell Baird at the hotel at about 2 p.m. on Dec. 4. According to the Alabama Department of Corrections, Baird, who was sentenced in St. Clair County to 10 years in the ADOC in July 2013 for discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, escaped from the Decatur work release center on Nov. 23.

U.S. Marshal Birmingham office Chief Deputy Cliff LaBarge said Baird’s arrest came a few days after the convict fled Alabama state troopers in Leeds.

“Through interviewing and investigative techniques, we were able to glean some information and eventually narrow it down to the hotel,” LaBarge said. “We had the Alabaster Police Department help us out, and we appreciated their help.”