A two-week manhunt for an escaped state inmate came to an end on the streets of Gulf Shores after a patrol officer recognized a suspicious person call as something bigger than it first appeared.
According to the Alabama Department of Corrections, Kevin Randolph Campbell, 38, walked away from a work-release job assignment in Troy on Aug. 3. The following day, he stole a four-wheeler and used it to evade officers who were pursuing him in Crenshaw County, disappearing before he could be taken back into custody.
Campbell resurfaced roughly two weeks later, hundreds of miles away on the Alabama coast. A Gulf Shores Police Department officer responding to a report of a suspicious person in the 200 block of East Beach Boulevard on a Wednesday night encountered Campbell and began questioning him.
Police spokesman Sgt. Jason Woodruff said Campbell was carrying stolen property and gave the officer a false name. When the officer attempted to detain him, Campbell struck the officer and tried to flee on foot. A chase followed, but the officer was able to catch and restrain him.
It was only after Campbell was in custody that officers learned the full scope of what they had walked into. “He has a history of eluding capture and is known to resort to desperate means to do so,” Woodruff said, describing Campbell’s escape from the Elba Work Release Center.
Campbell’s record includes a strong tie to the Baldwin County court system. In 1999, already carrying two prior felony convictions, he was convicted of second-degree burglary in Baldwin County. Under Alabama’s habitual offender law at the time, that conviction carried a mandatory life sentence.
After serving 16 years behind bars, Campbell was granted work-release status in December 2014, a step that allowed him supervised freedom to hold a job outside prison walls while continuing to serve his sentence. Had he not walked away from that assignment, corrections officials say he would have been eligible to go before the parole board in January.
Instead, his decision to run turned a possible path toward release into a fresh set of charges. Gulf Shores police said they expected to transfer Campbell back into the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections by Thursday evening, closing out an escape that spanned multiple counties and very nearly two full weeks of pursuit.
The case is a reminder for coastal Baldwin County residents that even a routine call about a suspicious person can turn into a significant public safety matter, and that local officers regularly serve as the last line of contact in cases originating far outside their own jurisdiction.