Wanted man previously arrested in Hamilton not caught again in Oshawa
Published October 31, 2023 at 11:17 am
A wanted man who had previously been arrested in Hamilton has not been arrested again in Oshawa, despite reports.
Michael Stamatakos, 31, is a federal offender with some distinctive skeletal face tattoos. He’s currently serving a two-year sentence for arson, damaging property, fleeing police, uttering threats and drug possession.
So far this year, Stamatakos has been a fugitive twice after breaching the conditions of his statutory release. This has prompted two manhunts for him. The first started on Feb. 23 and ended three weeks later on Mar. 16. Stamatakos checked himself into a Hamilton hospital where the OPP arrested him.
He was later released again only to go missing once again on Oct. 18. Following his latest disappearance, several videos appeared on TikTok of a man with similar tattoos apparently mocking police. The account “Toronto’s Joker” posted a couple of vidoes featuring a man who strongly resembles Stamatakos posing in front of a police car, and a story about the search for him.
On Oct. 30, video emerged of Durham Regional Police officers making an arrest in Oshawa. While the suspect in the video is difficult to positively identify, witnesses and social media indicated it may have been Stamatakos.
The video shows police surrounding the residential block near King St. and Gibbons St as a crowd of residents look on. The officers coach the suspect to raise his hands and slowly back up toward him before his arrest.
However, Durham Police confirmed this was not, in fact, Stamatakos, but an unrelated case. “This is not true and we have not arrested him,” Durham police said, “Someone created a tiktok of an arrest and claimed it to be Michael Stamatakos, it was not.”
As such, Stamatakos remains at large and is still wanted. He’s described as standing five-foot-five, with a shaved head and several facial tattoos. Anyone with information about his whereabouts can call the OPP ROPE squad at 416-808-5900.
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