A disgraced ex-Arkansas police chief who was serving 80 years in prison for rape and a shotgun-to-the-head execution escaped from a high-security prison disguised as a cop.

Grant Hardin, 56, the former police chief of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was seen on security cameras walking out of the North Central Unit prison, in Calico Rock, dressed in what appears to be a homemade law enforcement uniform on Sunday afternoon.

Hardin, who is considered extremely dangerous, used the outfit to sneak through the controlled gate while inconspicuously pushing a cart full of utility materials, according to the Stone County Sheriff’s Office.  

“It has been determined that Hardin was wearing a makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement when he escaped the North Central Unit. He was not wearing a Department of Corrections uniform, and all DOC-issued equipment has been accounted for,” Rand Champion, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, said in a statement.

Hardin served as police chief in Gateway, population 436, for only four months in early 2016, but had a checkered history at small police departments dating back to the early 1990s.. 

He was fired multiple times, and accused of excessive force, poor performance and even falsifying police records, according to local reports. 

In 2017, Hardin pleaded guilty to the murder of James Appleton, 59, a Gateway water department employee who was shot in the head at point-blank range with a shotgun while on the phone with his brother-in-law, who was at the time the mayor.

Hardin never offered a motive for the murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. 

While incarcerated, Hardin’s DNA was tested and linked to a 1997 rape case that saw an elementary school teacher sexually assaulted at gunpoint inside a school bathroom while a community church service occured down the hall. 

Hardin pleaded guilty to rape and kidnapping in 2018, with a judge sentencing him to an additional 50 years in jail. 

Police have warned residents not approach Hardin if they spot him, with roadblocks placed in Stone and Izard counties as the manhunt for the dangerous criminal continues into Monday. 

The rainy weather has likely kept Hardin close to the prison, but officials fear the fugitive might try anything to elude police. 

“Those that face a longer sentence, they do tend to be a little bit more risky, they do try to take a little bit more chances,” the Arkansas Department of Corrections told local 5NEWS.  “They really don’t have a lot to lose.” 

With Post wires