VIDALIA — A juvenile slipped out of handcuffs and escaped from the rear of a police car Saturday after officers found a firearm in the juvenile’s pocket at a Vidalia High School basketball game.

Lt. Miranda Clifton of the Vidalia Police Department said officers were interviewing a group of juveniles who were watching the basketball game in regard to an unrelated crime Saturday evening.

Clifton would not release details about the unrelated crime.

When officers approached the juvenile to conduct a pat-search, Clifton said the individual reached for their pocket, where a firearm was hidden.

Clifton said the investigator located and confiscated the firearm and handcuffed the juvenile, who was placed into the back seat of a police car at approximately 8:30 p.m.

When the officer left the juvenile in the car, the young person escaped.

The juvenile, who Clifton said was particularly “slender,” slipped one hand out of the cuffs and opened the partition in the center of the police unit.

After climbing through the cage window, the juvenile was able to open the car door and flee on foot.

Officers recaptured the juvenile blocks away from the high school and transported the youth to the Concordia Parish Jail.

The juvenile was charged with possession of a firearm at a school and with felony simple escape.

Whether the juvenile will be charged as an adult, Clifton said, is up to the judge.

Clifton said she would not release the identity, gender and age of the individual because he or she is a juvenile.

Clifton said she did not know whether the individual was a student at Vidalia High School.

The juvenile was released from the Concordia Parish Jail late Saturday night.