MIAMI -- Law enforcers want to catch a serial rape suspect who escaped from jail -- and they have increased the reward for information that leads to an arrest.

The FBI, Crime Stoppers and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have joined together to raise a reward of $36,000 for a tip that leads them to Reynaldo Rapolo.

Friday afternoon, police set up a perimeter around a shopping plaza near Northwest 37th Avenue at 7th Street in response to what they called a "credible tip" regarding a possible sighting of the suspected serial rapist who escaped from a county jail.

Officers stopped all cars leaving the Kmart shopping center parking lot, and K-9 units were also at the scene.

The perimeter was called off, but police set up a command post at International Links Miami, formerly Mel Reese Golf Course, as the manhunt continues.

The staging area for the perimeter was near the Flagler Dog Track and Miami International Airport.

The Escape

State, county and city law enforcement officials have been on high alert since Reynaldo Rapalo, believed to be the Shenandoah rapist, escaped from the Turner-Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Tuesday night.

Authorities said Rapalo and another inmate climbed through a ceiling vent and made their way onto the roof of the facility. Rapalo, 34, used bed sheets to lower himself to the ground; the other inmate was apprehended outside the jail because he broke his legs when he jumped.

Rapalo appeared to have received help escaping, Miami Police Chief John Timoney said Thursday.

Timoney said Rapalo used tools he would not further describe that appear to have been smuggled into the jail. Investigators will closely scrutinize any jailhouse visitors that Rapalo had, he said.

There are also indications that someone was planning to meet Rapalo after he escaped, Timoney said. He declined to further describe who that person was or how the getaway might have been pulled off.

Rapalo was scheduled to appear in court Jan. 5 for DNA evidence that allegedly ties him to seven rapes and four attempted assaults in the Shenandoah neighborhood of Miami dating back to 2002. The victims range in age from 11 to 79.

He gained notoriety as the subject of a documentary feature called "Code 33" that chronicles the alleged serial rapist's crime spree and his subsequent arrest.

Rapalo is considered armed and dangerous, and Miami-Dade Police Department Director Robert Parker said Rapalo represents "the worst kind of threat possible to the streets of Miami."

"He had help, and if he planned this so carefully, we have to assume that he has planned the next step," Miami Police Department Lt. Bill Schwartz said. "So we have to try and get one step in front of him."