Man impersonates inmate, escapes high-security Toronto South Detention Centre, police launch citywide search

Toronto police are hunting a 32-year-old man, Steven Alexander Guzman Marroquin, who escaped from the Toronto South Detention Centre in Etobicoke Monday night(January 26) after impersonating another inmate to slip past authorities, removing an ankle monitoring device near the facility.

The Toronto South Detention Centre is a maximum-security provincial jail located in Etobicoke, near Horner and Kipling avenues. Opened in 2014, it is one of the largest correctional facilities in Canada and primarily houses adult male inmates who are either awaiting trial, sentencing, or serving short-term sentences of less than two years.

The facility is operated by the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General and is designed to accommodate thousands of inmates across multiple living units with enhanced security measures.


“Under the guise of another inmate, he was fitted with an ankle monitoring device,” they said.

Police said the ankle monitoring device was later removed and recovered at a gas station near the maximum-security correctional facility at the intersection of Horner and Kipling avenues.

Marroquin is now wanted on charges of escaping lawful custody, personation with intent, obstructing a police officer, mischief under $5,000, and theft under $5,000.

Authorities have issued an image of Marroquin, who is described as standing about five feet nine inches tall, weighing roughly 200 pounds, and wearing his hair in a ponytail with a beard.

Const. Cindy Chung declined to say what the escaped inmate had been serving time for or what areas of the city he might frequent. Chung also said she could not comment on what happened to the inmate who was supposed to be released, nor on the detention centre’s security procedures.

“Anyone who knows any information about (Marroquin’s) whereabouts is asked to call the police. He is considered dangerous,” Chung said.