CHICAGO (AP) — A man convicted of murder who escaped from an eastern Illinois prison by beating and choking a guard into unconsciousness and stealing his uniform, keys and SUV has been captured in Chicago, ending a nearly three-day manhunt.
Kamron T. Taylor fled on foot as Chicago police officers responding to a call of a suspicious person approached him in the South Side neighborhood of Calumet Heights Friday night. Officers caught up with him after a few blocks and found him with a loaded handgun. He is being held on weapons charges until he can be turned over to the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office, Chicago police said.
Authorities also announced the arrest of Taylor’s aunt, who was once a guard at the jail, on suspicion of giving him information that aided his escape.
“I think I can speak for … everyone who’s been involved: tired, I guess is the word,” Kankakee County Sheriff Timothy Bukowski told reporters Saturday in summing up the frenzied search for the fugitive.
Taylor, 23, escaped before dawn Wednesday from the Jerome Combs Detention Center in Kankakee after lying in wait for a guard making 3 a.m. rounds and then attacking him. Wearing the guard’s uniform, Taylor fooled officers in a master control room into buzzing him through three security doors before driving off. He ditched the SUV a few miles away, and authorities haven’t pieced together how he got to Chicago.
Taylor was awaiting sentencing for shooting 21-year-old Nelson Williams Jr. in the head during a June 2013 robbery attempt on his front porch. He also made a run for it moments after hearing the guilty verdict in his February trial, as well as when he was first arrested for the killing.
He will certainly face additional charges, possibly including attempted murder for the attack on the guard, Bukowski said.
“We … believe that Mr. Taylor believed that he had killed the correctional officer by strangling him,” the sheriff said.
Taylor’s aunt, Tonya Grant, 50, was arrested earlier this week and charged on Saturday with obstructing justice and aiding in the escape of an inmate, The Daily Journal in Kankakee reported.
It was not immediately clear if she already had an attorney who could comment on the allegations. Her bond was set at $150,000.
She’s accused of giving Taylor confidential security information about the detention center during a jail visit with her nephew.
Investigators are still trying to determine exactly how security broke down at the decade old jail, where procedures were modeled after similar facilities across the nation but where budget cuts had recently reduced staff numbers. Remaining personnel were forced to work double shifts in a change that did not go unnoticed by the 450 inmates, the sheriff said.
“We do not believe that at lockdown he went into his cell,” Bukowski said. “And that’s where the big mistake happened, that someone missed that. And from that point on, things broke down.”
He said it was too early to say how that was overlooked, while promising that changes would prevent a future mistake.
“If there was intent to let him out, that’s one thing,” Bukowski said. “If it was just they got complacent because they’ve been working so many hours, that’s another issue.”
Investigators believe the gun Taylor was found with belonged to the injured guard.
Police in Chicago initially identified Taylor as the fugitive based on a tattoo on his neck and later through fingerprint matches.
It remains unclear how he got to Chicago after dumping the guard’s SUV, but he does have connections in the city and part of the manhunt was already focused there, Bukowski said.
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Let’s have more budget cuts, Gov. Rauner.