Palm Beach Police capture illegal immigrant but three escape
By William Kelly Daily News Staff Writer

Posted: 5:39 p.m. Monday, April 11, 2011


Palm Beach Police caught one illegal immigrant, but three others eluded them during a Saturday evening chase.

Officer Daniel Wilkinson noticed four black males walking in the area of 2000 S. Ocean Blvd. shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday. Two of them were wearing wet clothing but had no towels to dry off, and they were walking fast and looking over their shoulders, he wrote in his report.

As Wilkinson pulled his cruiser over, the men fled. Three jumped a guardrail on the west wide of the road and went into a vacant lot at 1990 S. Ocean Blvd., near Sloan’s Curve. Other Palm Beach police officers and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office’s canine unit and Eagle helicopter assisted in the search, but the suspects were not found.

Wilkinson apprehended a fourth man, identified as Garfield Birmingham, 50. No address for him was given.

Birmingham said he was a native of Jamaica and had been twice deported from the United States. A records check indicated that he has been convicted of felony drug and assault charges, and of making “terroristâ€