Police on Thursday arrested an Idaho prison gang member and an accomplice who escaped following an attack on corrections officers at a Boise hospital.
Police on Thursday arrested an Idaho prison gang member and an accomplice who escaped following an attack on corrections officers at a Boise hospital, with investigators looking into whether they committed two killings while on the run.
Skylar Meade, the escaped inmate, and Nicholas Umphenour, the man who police say shot two Idaho corrections officers early Wednesday to break Meade out of custody, were arrested during a traffic stop Thursday afternoon in Twin Falls, about 130 miles (209km) from where they escaped.
Authorities said during a news conference Thursday that they were investigating two homicides in Nez Perce and Clearwater counties, where the 2020 Honda Civic the duo were seen fleeing in was later found.
Police found shackles at the scene of one of the killings and “that’s one of the ways we tied them together,” Idaho State Police Lt. Colonel Sheldon Kelley said.
Meade, 31, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a high-speed chase.
Umphenour was released from the same prison in January, and had at times been housed with Meade at times, authorities said.
Authorities said they were alerted of the attack at 2:15 a.m. Wednesday 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 after he injured himself, officials said.
Meade had been imprisoned at Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Boise.
Police said Nicholas Umphenour is suspected of shooting two corrections officers during Wednesday’s ambush in the ambulance bay at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center.
A warrant with a $2 million bond has been issued for his arrest on two charges of aggravated battery against law enforcement and one charge of aiding and abetting an escape, police said.
Officials described Meade as a white supremacist gang member.
Meade was sentenced to 20 years in 2017 for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a high-speed chase.
