An Anderson County jail guard has quit a day after two men he was supposed to be watching escaped over a razor-wire fence. The guard, who the jail has not identified, resigned Tuesday, Detention Center Director Bob Daly said. Daly said the guard, who was hired in January, was assigned to watch the inmates while they were in a fenced-in recreational area but left his post to open a gate for another inmate without notifying other guards. This was a serious act on his part by walking away from those men, and it had serious consequences. He said it was the jail's first escape since March 1997.
Police think they fled in a car driven by another man.
The car had been parked in the area before the escape, investigators said. Both men were awaiting multiple burglary charges and faced long-term prison sentences if convicted of those charges, police said.