Police on Thursday arrested an Idaho prison gang member and an accomplice who went on the run after attacking a correctional officer at a Boise hospital, and investigators are investigating whether they committed two murders while on the run.
Escaped inmate Skyler Mead and Nicholas Amphenol, the man who police say shot and killed two Idaho correctional officers early Wednesday in an effort to release Mead from custody, were found on Thursday afternoon about 130 miles from the scene. (209 km) away during a traffic stop in Twin Falls. they ran away.
Authorities are investigating two homicides in Nez Perce and Clearwater counties during a press conference Thursday, and said the 2020 Honda Civic in which the two men fled was later recovered. did.
Lt. Col. Sheldon Kelly of the Idaho State Police said police found shackles at the murder scene and “that was one of the ways we tied the shackles.”
Meade, 31, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 for firing at a sheriff’s sergeant during a high-speed chase.
Authorities said Amphenol was released from the prison in January and was at one point housed with Meade.
Officials said Idaho Department of Corrections officers were preparing to transport Meade back to the prison from St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise after he was injured when they received a report of the attack at 2:15 a.m. Wednesday. did.
Meade was being held at the Idaho Maximum Security Facility in Kuna, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Boise.
Police said Nicolas Amphenol is suspected of ambushed and fatally shot two correctional officers in an ambulance bay at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center on Wednesday.
Police said he was arrested on two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and one count of aiding and abetting escape, and a warrant was issued with bail set at $2 million.
Officials described Meade as a white supremacist gang member.
Meade was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 for firing at a sheriff’s sergeant during a high-speed chase.
Three correctional officers were shot and wounded in the attack, two by Umphenol and one by responding police.
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.
Corrections Director Josh Tewald said Thursday that one guard has been discharged from the hospital and the other two are stable and improving.
“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.
Police said Umphenol is 5 feet 11 (180 centimeters) tall, weighs 160 pounds (72.5 kilograms), and has brown hair and hazel eyes.
Detectives confirmed he was an associate of Mead, police said.
Meade, who is 5-foot-6 (168 cm) tall and weighs 150 pounds (68 kg), has the numbers 1 and 11 tattooed on his face. A and K are the first and 11th letters of the alphabet, representing the Aryan Knights gang he belonged to. said Tewalt.
Photos released by police also showed him having an “A” and a “K” tattooed on his abdomen.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Idaho, the Aryan Knights formed inside Idaho prisons in the mid-1990s and organized criminal activities among some white people in custody and outside prison walls.
In 2021, the group’s alleged leader was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a conspiracy to traffic drugs and use violence to collect unpaid debts behind bars. In court filings prior to Harlan Hale’s sentencing, federal prosecutors described the Aryan Knights as a “scourge” that drains resources within the state’s prison system.
“Gangs driven by hatred engage in various types of criminal activity and cast a shadow of intimidation, addiction and violence on prison life.” the prosecutor wrote.
In 2022, the Anti-Defamation League 75 different white supremacist prison gangs At federal or local facilities in at least 38 states.
Two of the largest such groups, Aryan Circle of Texas and Aryan Brotherhood, have at least 1,500 members, according to the ADL.
Mark Pitcavage, a senior researcher at the ADL’s Center on Extremism, estimates that the Aryan Order has about 150 members behind bars and about 100 more on the streets.
He said the company also has operations in other states, including Washington and Oregon.
“With all these white supremacist prison gangs, ideology has taken a backseat to organized crime. That’s not surprising,” he said.
“They use it like a glue to keep them together and to keep them loyal to their gang.”
Pitcavage said white supremacist prison gangs are a completely different phenomenon from neo-Nazi groups like Aryan Nations, which had a presence in northern Idaho during its peak in the 1980s and 1990s. .
Tewalt said Meade was placed in a type of administrative isolation at the Idaho Maximum Security Institute in Kuna, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Boise, because authorities deemed him a serious safety risk. He was said to have been detained in a solitary confinement cell.
Tewalt said that earlier in the day, Meade was escorted in the ambulance and at the hospital by two uniformed, unarmed police officers wearing ballistic vests and accompanied by armed staff.
Later that day, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sanda Kuzeta-Celimagic said in an email that authorities confirmed that an employee was in the ambulance with Meade and two officers were in the convoy. He said he confirmed it.
“As far as we know, Mr. Meade was restrained while entering and exiting the hospital,” Kzeta Cherimagic said.
At a press conference Thursday, officials said their protocols are “fully consistent with our policies and practices.”
Officials also did not say whether other safety measures were in place when Meade was discharged from the hospital.
The attack comes as hospitals and medical centers struggle to adapt to a spate of gun violence.
Johnson reported from Seattle and Thiessen from Anchorage, Alaska.
Associated Press writers Lisa Bauman in Bellingham, Washington; Associated Press researcher Rhonda Schaffner in New York; and Michael Kunzelman in Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed to this report.
