BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Three correctional officers were shot — two by a suspect and one by responding police — during a brazen overnight attack to break a prison inmate out of an Idaho hospital, authorities said Wednesday.
Police throughout the region are looking for the suspect and the escaped inmate, Skylar Meade, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a high-speed chase.
Meade and the unknown suspect were last seen traveling in a grey four-door sedan, possibly a Honda Civic, with Idaho plates. They are considered armed and dangerous.
Police said Meade was last seen wearing shorts and no shirt. He has a "D" tattoo on his right arm, a star on his left leg, a teardrop under his left eye, a clown or skull on his chest, "product of my enforcement" on his chest, and the letters "AK" on his stomach.
The other suspect is described as a white man, bald, with "1" and "11" tattooed near his left and right eyes, respectively.
The attack occurred at 2:15 a.m. as Idaho Department of Corrections officers prepared to bring Meade back to prison from Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, where they had taken him for undisclosed treatment.
One officer shot by the suspect was in critical but stable condition, police said, while the second wounded officer had serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The third injured corrections officer also sustained non-life-threatening injuries when a responding officer — incorrectly believing the shooter was still in the emergency room and seeing an armed person near the entrance — opened fire.
“This brazen, violent, and apparently coordinated attack on Idaho Department of Corrections personnel, to facilitate an escape of a dangerous inmate, was carried out right in front of the Emergency Department, where people come for medical help, often in the direst circumstances,” Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar said in a written statement.
Earlier, the hospital had been on temporary lockdown, police said.
A hospital spokesperson said the shooting happened in the ambulance bay by its emergency department.
“All patients and staff are safe, the medical center campus is safe and secure, and has resumed normal operations. The Emergency Department itself is currently under temporary lockdown while the Boise Police Department completes the investigation,” Leticia Ramirez said Wednesday morning in a statement.
She said that as an added precaution, they have increased security at the site, and all entrances will be closed and monitored by hospital security until further notice.
Ramirez declined to comment when asked about Meade, deferring to the police department.
