Dangerous Idaho inmate escapes custody from a hospital early Wednesday morning after a second suspect ambushed officers and opened fire on them, wounding two.
The attack, which authorities believe was planned, unfolded at 2:15 a.m. as Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) officers prepared to return inmate Skylar Meade to jail.
Meade had been transported to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center for treatment. after he apparently caused injuries to himself, according to IDOC Director Josh Tewalt.
At the hospital, a suspect, later identified as Nicholas Umphenour, attacked and shot at the officers. One of the officers was injured or was in critical but stable condition, while the other suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
A third IDOC officer was injured after Boise police responded and shot at an armed individual near the hospital entrance. The officer was not seriously injured and was treated.
“This brazen, violent and apparently coordinated attack on Idaho Department of Corrections staff, to facilitate the escape of a dangerous inmate, took place right in front of the Emergency Department, where people come for medical help, to often in the most extreme circumstances,” Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar said in a written statement reviewed by Fox News.
The hospital was forced to temporarily close after the “shooting incident” that occurred in the ambulance bay by the emergency department, hospital spokesperson Leticia Ramírez said.
“All patients and staff are safe, the medical center campus is safe and secure and has resumed normal operations,” Ramirez said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The police said that The two wanted suspects fled the scene in a gray 2020 Honda Civic, license plate 2TDF43U. Both suspects are said to be armed and dangerous.
Meade was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 for shooting a Twin Falls sheriff’s sergeant during a high-speed chase. His previous convictions include felony possession of a controlled substance, grand larceny and introduction of contraband into a correctional facility.
The police said that Meade is an affiliated member of the “Arayan Knights,” a white supremacist prison gang based primarily in Idaho.. He has the numbers 1 and 11 tattooed on both sides of his face, representing “A” and “K.”
Meade had been placed in what Tewalt called “administrative segregation,” a type of solitary confinement at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, because of his behavior while in custody.
“It is a form of restrictive housing that is really reserved for those people in our custody who have demonstrated that they cannot be housed without being a danger to themselves,” Tewalt said.
Boise officers obtained an arrest warrant for Umphenour for aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and inciting to flee. The warrant has a bond of $2 million, Boise police said.
Authorities asked anyone with information about the incident or the suspects to call Ada County Dispatch at 208-377-6790.
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