Investigators say the release of 21-year-old Taaqi Brown was due to human error.
On Monday, a discharge notice arrived for his brother, Taariq Brown, housed in a less secure part of the prison.
Prison Superintendent John Reilly says a records clerk at the prison took the discharge notice and, somehow, transposed Taaqi's information onto it.
Five other prison employees subsequently had contact with him before he was mistakenly released at around 10:00 p.m. and Chitwood was alerted of the mix up around 11:30 p.m.
"He was shown the front door," Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said. "He certainly didn't escape."
Brown was picked up at the prison by an unidentified woman in a black SUV.
Police and federal agents launched a region wide search. Brown was considered armed and dangerous, accused of spraying an Upper Darby playground with gunfire and killing a man last summer.
On Tuesday morning, Brown's father called a long time friend, a Philadelphia police inspector, and offered to turn his son in.
Brown was brought in by his mother and stepfather, who hugged him as he was lead off by Upper Darby police detectives.
"I told him this was the right thing to do," said Brown's mother Lisa Locke. "This is what he needed to do. I'm glad it's over... at least this part of it. Moving forward he'll be able to do some things differently."
Delaware County District Attorney Mike Green says although it was a paperwork error that led to Brown's release, he will be charged with escape because he did not alert prison officials about the mixup.
The Delaware County prison is operated by a private company called Community Education Centers. They're conducting an internal investigation and the county D.A. has launched a criminal investigation.
The questions he wants answered: Was the transposition of the two names on the discharge papers deliberate, or simply a clerical error? And who should have been double checking?
Brown was awaiting trial for the 2009 murder of Aaron Kearney. Police say Brown mistakenly gunned down Kearney on May 2nd of last year when Brown opened fire on a crowd of people who were on an Upper Darby street.
Investigators say Brown's intended target was one of Kearney's friends. Officers say the friend has not cooperated in the murder investigation.
If convicted on all charges, Brown faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Upper Darby Township Police, Philadelphia Police and the Fugitive Task Force were involved in the search effort.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
