Manhunt underway after convicted North Carolina child killer escapes hospital
A manhunt is underway after a convicted child murderer escaped from custody outside a North Carolina hospital Tuesday morning, authorities said.
Ramone Jamarr Alston, 30, escaped from a North Carolina Department of Corrections vehicle around 7 a.m. just before he was set to get medical treatment at UNC Hospital in Hillsborough, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
While inside the van, he was able to remove his leg restraints and then jumped out of the parked vehicle. He evaded police officers and ran through the parking lot into the woods.
He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, brown pants and New Balance sneakers, with handcuffs connected to a chain around his waist.
Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are participating in the search.
“He’s either within a 5 mile radius or he’s in the rest of the world, and we’re searching both,” Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood told ABC 11.
A $25,000 reward has been offered for information leading to Alston’s arrest.
The hospital went into lockdown for about 90 minutes following Alston’s escape, according to a statement sent to the station.
The Durham Technical Community College campus in Orange County also went on on lockdown, canceled Tuesday classes and asked students and employees not to come to campus.
Alston was convicted of fatally shooting 1-year-old Maleah Williams in Chapel Hill on Christmas Day in 2015. The girl’s mother said a group of children were playing outside when a drive-by shooting occurred. The little girl died two days later.
Alston and another man, Pierre Je Bron Moore, took plea deals in 2019. Alston received a life sentence, which he’s been serving at the Bertie Correctional Institution, while Moore was sentenced to between 28 and 34 years. A third man who was originally implicated in the shooting later had his charges dropped.
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