Northwest Minnesota inmate who escaped into soybean field is captured

Authorities have captured a Polk County inmate who escaped Wednesday after overpowering a corrections officer during a medical transport and speeding away in the vehicle.

The six-hour manhunt had search teams combing northwestern Minnesota farmland to find 20-year-old Tony Mitchell Krueger, who was last seen fleeing on foot into a soybean field near Winger, Minn.

He was arrested in the area just before 8 p.m. and transported back to Northwest Regional Correctional Center in Crookston, where he'll await new charges.

The saga began around 1:15 p.m. as a correctional officer accompanied Krueger, of Bagley, Minn., to a medical appointment, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. Krueger overcame the officer while driving through Crookston and fled the scene, authorities said.

A short time later, State Patrol deputies located the stolen vehicle near Erskine, Minn., where the driver led officers on a high-speed chase before being stopped. Krueger then sprinted into a field at the intersection of County Road 204 and Hwy. 59.

He has previous misdemeanor convictions for domestic assault and drug possession.