North Carolina authorities are conducting an extensive search for a prisoner convicted of shooting and killing a 1-year-old girl in 2015 after he escaped while being transported to a medical appointment.
Federal, state and local authorities are searching for Ramone Jamarr Alston30, who escaped from the custody of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections around 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Alston was about to receive medical attention at UNC Hospital in Hillsborough when He freed himself from the restraints on his legs and ran into the forest. adjacent, the department said in a statement.
He was last seen wearing a gray T-shirt, brown pants and white sneakers. Alston was also wearing handcuffs connected to a chain around his waist.
The reward offered for information leading to Alston’s capture has been raised to $35,000. after the U.S. Marshals Service provided an additional $10,000, Keith Acree, communications director for the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections, announced during a news conference Wednesday.
MANHUNT | Murder suspect escapes during hospital transport, massive manhunt underway
Authorities are conducting an extensive search for Ramone Jamarr Alston, who escaped from a Department of Adult Correction transport vehicle around 7:00 am this morning as he arrived at UNC… pic.twitter.com/1vVr5DVwve
— Bobby Ellison (@BobbyEllisonKY) August 13, 2024
“He is extremely cunning, extremely dangerous”And he has nothing to lose,” Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said during the hearing.
Authorities have been in contact with some of Alston’s family members, and their “cooperation has been mixed,” Blackwood said. Agents were also interviewing two transportation officers tasked with guarding Alston.
While correctional officers carry guns, protocol is to place them in lockboxes while transporting prisoners. The correctional officers who transported Alston followed that protocol, Blackwood said.
Authorities have advised residents to report any suspicious activity and to keep doors, vehicles and windows closed. “If anyone sees Alston, please do not approach him.”warned the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections.
The search for Alston would continue north of Hillsborough on Wednesday, Blackwood said. “Since he left the hospital, everything points to a move north,” Blackwood said.
The search has resumed in the direction where trained dogs led police before the trail went missing Tuesday, Orange County Emergency Services Director Kirby Saunders said at the news conference.
“Any indication that Mr. Alston may have been there, any footprints, any discarded remains, handcuffs and fire, anything we can find that confirms the direction of travel and how he may have evaded capture, that’s our focus today,” Saunders said.
Officers received a couple of calls reporting sightings of Alston. in Durham, about 15 miles southeast of Hillsborough, including at a Big Lots store, but none of them could be confirmed. “I can’t give any degree of certainty to any of them,” Blackwood said.
Following Alston’s escape, UNC Hospitals’ Hillsborough campus was placed on lockdown until about 8:30 a.m. and increased security during the incident, WTVD reported. Durham Technical Community College’s campus in Orange County was also closed and classes canceled Tuesday, according to a campus-wide alert.
Records show that Alston has faced 13 separate infractions in custody since 2019. The violations ranged from having a cell phone, drugs or cigarettes in their possession. The most recent violation was possession of a cell phone in January.
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