The escaped killer of a one-year-old girl who escaped from an ambulance on Tuesday was captured early Friday at a hotel in the Charlotte, North Carolina suburb of Kannapolis, authorities said.
Ramone Alston, 30, escaped from the van when it arrived at UNC Gastroenterology Hospital in Hillsborough, North Carolina by freeing himself from his leg guards and fleeing into nearby woods while handcuffed, the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction said.
No one was injured when he was taken into custody, the department said, adding that hundreds of law enforcement and public safety officials were involved in the search, including FBI Charlotte SWAT agents, Kannapolis Police and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.
CBS Raleigh, NC affiliate WNCN-TV reported that a reward for information leading to Alston’s arrest was $50,000 after being raised several times but there was no word on what led police to Alston.
A short time after his arrest, a female acquaintance, Jacobia Crisp, was arrested in Alamance County and charged with aggravated aiding and abetting a fugitive, according to the department.
North Carolina Department of Adult Correction via AP
Alston will be charged with the crime from prison and taken to a high-security unit of the state prison system where he will “resume serving his life sentence for first-degree murder and await court appearances on his escape charges,” the department noted. “The investigation will continue to establish his movements since he escaped on Tuesday, any additional accomplices who assisted him and whether he committed any other crimes while on the run.”
At a news conference Wednesday, Orange County, NC Sheriff Charles Blackwood urged residents near the hospital to check their home cameras for any evidence of where Alston went and to be vigilant.
“He’s extremely cagey, extremely dangerous, and he’s got nothing to lose,” Blackwood said.
Alston has been serving his term at Bertie Correctional Institution in Windsor, NC since he was convicted of murdering 1-year-old Maleah Williams, who was recorded on Christmas Day 2015 from a passing car while playing outside her family’s Chapel Hill apartment. She died three days later.