3 Idaho cops shot, 1 by friendly fire - 03/20/24
3 correctional officers were at a Boise, ID hospital last night with an inmate when they took fire from the inmate's accomplices. 2 were shot by the bad guys. 1 was shot by a police office who mistook him for a bad guy. 1 is critical, 2 have non-life threatening injuries. All the bad guys escaped.
Quote
Three Idaho corrections officers were shot as a suspect staged a brazen attack to break a prison inmate out of a Boise hospital overnight. Two of the officers were shot by the suspect early Wednesday. The third was shot and wounded by a police officer when police mistook the correctional officer for the suspect. One officer was in critical but stable condition, and the other had serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The corrections officer shot by police sustained non-life-threatening injuries. The inmate and the accomplice escaped from the hospital and have not been taken into custody. Police are looking for a gray sedan with Idaho plates that the two used to flee.
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 were looking for the suspected shooter as well as the escaped inmate, described by officials as white supremacist gang member Skylar Meade, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 for shooting at a sheriff's sergeant during a high-speed chase. Meade, 31, and the unidentified suspect fled in a gray four-door sedan, possibly a Honda Civic, with Idaho plates.
The attack occurred at 2:15 a.m. as Idaho Department of Correction officers prepared to bring Meade back to prison from Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise. Department Director Josh Tewalt said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon that Meade was taken to the hospital at 9:35 p.m. Tuesday after he engaged in "self-injurious behavior" and medical staff determined he needed emergency care.
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.
Hospital Shooting Inmate
Meade, 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds, has face tattoos with the numbers 1 and 11 — for A and K, the first and 11th letters of the alphabet, representing the Aryan Knights gang he affiliated with, Tewalt said. Photos released by police also showed an A and K tattooed on his abdomen.
Meade had been held in a type of solitary confinement called administrative segregation at Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Boise, because officials deemed him a severe security risk, Tewalt said.
The attack follows a wave of gun violence at hospitals and medical centers, which have struggled to adapt to the threats.
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 were looking for the suspected shooter as well as the escaped inmate, described by officials as white supremacist gang member Skylar Meade, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 for shooting at a sheriff's sergeant during a high-speed chase. Meade, 31, and the unidentified suspect fled in a gray four-door sedan, possibly a Honda Civic, with Idaho plates.
The attack occurred at 2:15 a.m. as Idaho Department of Correction officers prepared to bring Meade back to prison from Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise. Department Director Josh Tewalt said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon that Meade was taken to the hospital at 9:35 p.m. Tuesday after he engaged in "self-injurious behavior" and medical staff determined he needed emergency care.
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.
Hospital Shooting Inmate
Meade, 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds, has face tattoos with the numbers 1 and 11 — for A and K, the first and 11th letters of the alphabet, representing the Aryan Knights gang he affiliated with, Tewalt said. Photos released by police also showed an A and K tattooed on his abdomen.
Meade had been held in a type of solitary confinement called administrative segregation at Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Boise, because officials deemed him a severe security risk, Tewalt said.
The attack follows a wave of gun violence at hospitals and medical centers, which have struggled to adapt to the threats.