Eighteen-year-old Vicente Vielma sat handcuffed to a bench at the Roma Municipal Court Friday.
He was set to face a judge on charges of aggravated assault and escape from police.
Vielma is still not formally charged, because once again he escaped.
"As far as we can tell this individual is either a Houdini, or something happened that he was able to remove his handcuffs,” said Lt. Rafael Aguirre of the Roma Police Department.
It was three months ago that police said Vielma was arrested for aggravated assault.
They said when they took him to the juvenile detention center, Vielma made his first run for it.
"As the officer opened the door for him to extract him from the patrol car, he jumped and ran away from the officer handcuffed that time,” said Aguirre.
Police said they couldn't find Vielma for months.
That is until Thursday when police said they found him at his grandma's house.
"We did catch him after an attempt to escape again and a scuffle,” said Aguirre.
Friday, Vielma was finally going to get charged.
A Roma police officer handcuffed him to a bench inside the courtroom and left the room.
Vielma made his move.
"We believe he squeezed his hands through,” said Aguirre. “He didn't break the handcuffs.”
After slipping out of his handcuffs, police said Vielma ran out the front door of the courtroom and began fighting with the police officer in front of the courthouse.
Police said he then ran down a side street two blocks to the Rio Grande and jumped in.
Police told Action 4 News they watched as Vielma swam to an island in the river.
"We call it no man's land, because it's not on the U.S. or Mexican side,” said Aguirre.
Police said Vielma rested on the island for five to 10 minutes.
When police got their boat in the water, they said Vielma swam to Mexico.
"He might run, but we'll catch up to him eventually,” said Aguirre.
Police believe Vielma will come back to the U.S.
When that happens, they said they will catch him the third time.
Roma Police said neither officers involved in the two escapes faced any form of punishment from the police department since both were found to be following protocol.
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