OAN’s Avril Elfie
5:12pm – Thursday, March 21, 2024
An inmate and his accomplice who helped him escape from a Boise, Idaho, hospital have been arrested after authorities raided the prison.
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Escaped inmate Skylar Meade and her accomplice, Nicholas Amphenol, who shot and killed two Idaho state troopers and helped her escape, were finally arrested during a traffic stop in Twin Falls, Idaho.
At a news conference Thursday, authorities said they had received reports of two homicides involving 2020 Honda Civics speeding away in Nez Perce and Clearwater counties.
However, it was eventually determined that the car was being driven by both Skylar Meade and Nicholas Amphenol.
“That’s one of the ways we bring them together,” said Lt. Col. Sheldon Kelly with the Idaho State Police.
Kelly added that handcuffs believed to have been worn by Meade were found at the murder scene.
“What we know with almost certainty is that this was not an accident,” said Department of Corrections Director Josh Tewald. “This was a planned event. And we are putting every resource into understanding exactly how they planned it.”
Early Wednesday morning, at approximately 2:15 a.m., state corrections officials were attempting to transfer Meade, who had been taken to St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center for treatment, to a correctional facility.
Police said as they were preparing to remove Meade, another suspect, later identified as Nicholas Anfenner, opened fire on them, injuring two officers. One officer has non-life-threatening injuries, while the other remains in a stable but serious condition. Meade was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 for firing multiple shots at a law enforcement officer during a high-speed chase as he evaded a traffic stop. He later entered guilty pleas to charges of aggravated assault, possession of methamphetamine, unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a shank in prison.
Meade and Amphenol are both reportedly members of the Aryan Knights gang, authorities said, and authorities say they are being linked to “multiple security forces that we are monitoring and trying to disrupt their activities.” “It’s one of the threat groups.”
In addition, co-defendant Umphenol has already completed his sentence and served it “intermittently” at a maximum-security facility in Idaho from Dec. 29, 2022 until his release on Jan. 17, 2024, Tewalt said. Stated.
“Their gang involvement does not necessarily indicate that this is some kind of gang-sanctioned event,” Tewald said Thursday.
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