Three Idaho correctional officers were shot and killed in a brazen attack by a suspect to keep inmates out of a Boise hospital overnight.
BOISE, ID — Three correctional officers were shot and killed, two by the suspect and one by responding police, in a brazen overnight attack to rob prison inmates at an Idaho hospital, authorities say. announced on Wednesday.
Police from across the area were searching for the shooting suspect and on-the-run inmate Skyler Meade. Skyler Meade was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 for fatally shooting a deputy during a high-speed chase.
Meade, 31, and the suspect fled in a gray four-door sedan with Idaho plates, possibly a Honda Civic. Neither was in police custody.
The attack occurred at 2:15 a.m. as Idaho Department of Corrections officials were preparing to take Meade back to the prison from St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, where he had taken Meade for undisclosed treatment. did. Meade was being held at the Idaho Maximum Security Facility in Kuna, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Boise.
Police said one officer who was shot by the suspect is in critical but stable condition, and the second officer who was shot suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. A third injured correctional officer was also killed when responding officers opened fire (mistakenly believing the gunman was still in the emergency room and had seen an armed person near the entrance). There were no other injuries, but he was injured.
“This brazen, violent and apparently coordinated attack on an Idaho Department of Corrections officer, with the goal of escaping a dangerous inmate, took place in the emergency department, where people often go seeking medical assistance in the most dire of situations. It took place right in front of us,” Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar said in a written statement.
The attacks come as hospitals and medical centers struggle to adapt to the threat of gun violence.
A St. Alphonsus spokesperson said the shooting occurred in the emergency department's emergency room.
“All patients and staff are safe and the medical center campus is safe and secure and has resumed normal operations. The emergency department itself is currently on temporary lockdown until the Boise Police Department completes its investigation. ,” Leticia Ramirez said in a statement Wednesday morning.
She said as an additional precaution, “campus security has been increased and all entrances to the hospital have been closed” and will be monitored by hospital security until further notice.
Asked about Meade, Ramirez declined to comment, deferring to police discretion.