Both men are considered armed and dangerous, if you encounter them, do not approach, authorities said. Call 911 or Ada County Dispatch at 208-377-6790.
Authorities in Idaho are searching for a white supremacist Idaho prison inmate and an accomplice who are at large after they fled a Boise hospital ambush, cops say.
Police say Nicholas Umphenour, 28, was the accomplice to the escape of white supremacist inmate Skylar Meade, 31, from custody.
They both fled from authorities after Umphenour shot and wounded corrections officers as they were transporting Meade from a Boise hospital, authorities said.
Umphenour helped plan to release Meade from custody early Wednesday morning after Meade was brought to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, according to the Boise Police Department.
Three Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) officers were injured in the melee.
One officer who was shot by Umphenour is in critical but stable condition, authorities said. A second officer who was shot by Umphenour has serious but non-life-threatening injuries, cops said.
The third officer was injured during gunfire from a responding BPD officer and received non-life-threatening injuries, cops said.
Idaho Department of Corrections Chief Ron Winegar released a statement about the incident in a press release.
“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. When BPD officers responded, they believed the shooter was inside the Emergency Department. They immediately entered to address any potential continued threat to Emergency Room staff. I am grateful this harrowing incident did not result in loss of life, and we are monitoring the wounded IDOC officers with great hope for a full and speedy recovery of all involved,” Chief Winegar said.
A warrant with a $2 million bond has been issued for Umphenour’s arrest on two charges of aggravated battery against law enforcement and one charge of aiding and abetting an escape, police said.
The City of Boise has issued an alert to citizens about the inmate's escape and say that they were caught on surveillance footage and last seen in a vehicle identified as a grey 2020 Honda Civic with license plate 2TDF43U.
While the investigation is ongoing, cops say it is unknown exactly where they are or where they are headed.
Police have described Umphenour as roughly 5 feet 11 inches, weighs 160 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes.
Umphenour is a career criminal who served time in 2016 for burglary and was also incarcerated in 2019 after he pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and grand theft by receiving, possession or disposing of stolen property, Idaho Statesman reported.
It’s unclear when he was released from prison and how he knew Meade.
Police said Meade is a 5 feet 6 inches with brown hair and hazel eyes, and has several tattoos across his chest and on his face, including some associated with the Aryan Knights, a white supremacist prison gang.
The Aryan Knights is a prison gang that started in the 1990s in the state’s correction centers, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in the district of Idaho.
Department of Corrections director Josh Tewalt spoke at a press conference Wednesday and said Meade had been held in a type of solitary confinement called administrative segregation at Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna because officials deemed him a severe security risk.
Meade was taken from the prison in Kuna, which is about 12 miles south of Boise, to the hospital and had been escorted in an ambulance which also had two uniformed, unarmed officers wearing ballistic vests, tailed by armed staff, New York Post reported.
Correction Department spokesperson Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic told the New York Post via email “to the best of our knowledge, Meade was in restraints while being escorted in and out of the hospital.”
Saint Alphonsus spokesperson Leticia Ramirez said the shooting happened in the ambulance bay by its emergency department.
“All patients and staff are safe, the medical center campus is safe and secure, and has resumed normal operations. The Emergency Department itself is currently under temporary lockdown while the Boise Police Department completes the investigation,” Ramirez said in a statement.
Ramirez said that the hospital has increased security and all entrances to the hospital have been closed.
Both men are considered armed and dangerous, if you encounter them, do not approach, authorities said. Call 911 or Ada County Dispatch at 208-377-6790.
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