Authorities are searching for a white supremacist Idaho prison inmate and his accomplice who shot and killed a correctional officer while transporting inmates from a Boise hospital, then fled the scene, police said.
Police have named the suspect, Nicolas Amphenol. Two correctional officers shot dead in Wednesday's ambush at the St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center Ambulance Depot. Police said he was arrested on two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and one count of aiding and abetting escape, and a warrant was issued with bail set at $2 million.
He and inmate Skylar Mead fled in a gray 2020 Honda Civic with Idaho plates early Wednesday morning after the shooting. Police said Wednesday evening that it was unclear where they were or where they were headed.
Three correctional officers were shot and wounded in the attack, two by Umphenol and one by responding police.
Officials described Meade, 31, as a white supremacist gang member.Mead is sentenced to 20 years in prison He was charged in 2017 with shooting a sheriff's sergeant during a high-speed chase.
The attack occurred at 2:15 a.m. as Idaho Department of Corrections officers prepared to take Meade back to prison. Ministry Director Josh Tewalt said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon that Meade was taken to a hospital at 9:35 p.m. Tuesday after suffering a “self-inflicted injury,” and medical staff determined he needed emergency treatment. .
Police said one officer who was shot by the suspect is in critical but stable condition, and the second officer who was shot suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. A third injured correctional officer was also killed when responding officers opened fire (mistakenly believing the gunman was still in the emergency room and had seen an armed person near the entrance). There were no other injuries, but he was injured.
“This brazen, violent and apparently coordinated attack on an Idaho Department of Corrections officer, with the goal of escaping a dangerous inmate, took place in the emergency department, where people often go seeking medical assistance in the most dire of situations. It took place right in front of us,” Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar said in a written statement.
Police said Umphenol is 5 feet 11 (180 centimeters) tall, weighs 160 pounds (72.5 kilograms), and has brown hair and hazel eyes. Detectives confirmed he was an associate of Mead, police said. Attempts by The Associated Press to contact Umphenol through social media were unsuccessful.
Meade, who is 5-foot-6 (168 cm) tall and weighs 150 pounds (68 kg), has the numbers 1 and 11 tattooed on his face. A and K are the first and 11th letters of the alphabet, representing the Aryan Knights gang he belonged to. said Tewalt. Photos released by police also showed him having an “A” and a “K” tattooed on his abdomen.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Idaho, the Aryan Knights formed inside an Idaho prison in the mid-1990s with the purpose of organizing criminal activities against a select group of white people in custody.
Tewalt said Meade was placed in a type of administrative isolation at the Idaho Maximum Security Institute in Kuna, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Boise, because authorities deemed him a serious safety risk. He was said to have been detained in a solitary confinement cell.
Tewalt said that earlier in the day, Meade was escorted in the ambulance and at the hospital by two uniformed, unarmed police officers wearing ballistic vests and accompanied by armed staff. Later that day, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sanda Kuzeta-Celimagic said in an email that authorities confirmed that an employee was in the ambulance with Meade and two officers were in the convoy. He said he confirmed it.
“As far as we know, Mr. Meade was restrained while entering and exiting the hospital,” Kzeta Cherimagic said. He did not specify whether the restraints were handcuffs, shackles or another type of restraint, but said the transfer procedure would depend on the level of detention of the person being transferred.
Officials also did not say whether other safety measures were in place when Meade was discharged from the hospital.
The attack occurred during wave of gun violence Hospitals and medical centers are struggling to adapt to the threat.
A St. Alphonsus spokesperson said the shooting occurred in the emergency department's emergency room.
“All patients and staff are safe and the medical center campus is safe and secure and has resumed normal operations. The emergency department itself is currently on temporary lockdown until the Boise Police Department completes its investigation. ,” Leticia Ramirez said in a statement Wednesday morning.
She said as an additional precaution, “campus security has been increased and all entrances to the hospital have been closed” and will be monitored by hospital security until further notice.
Asked about Meade, Ramirez declined to comment, deferring to police discretion.
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Johnson reported from Seattle and Thiessen from Anchorage, Alaska. Associated Press writer Lisa Bauman in Bellingham, Washington, contributed.
