Police Find Escapee Hiding in Equipment Shed

LAUREL, Md. - An armed prisoner who overpowered a Maryland State Trooper and fled Laurel Regional Hospital in a hospital gown and with the trooper's gun early Tuesday is now in police custody.

Police used helicopters and police dogs to search for Kamara Mohamed, 39, of Philadelphia. They warned neighbors that Mohamed, who goes by a number of different aliases including Amadu Shuunan Jalloh, is a skilled car thief who might try to steal a car.

Bloodhounds led SWAT teams to the general area where Mohamed was hiding -- an equipment shed. A maintenance worker tells Channel 5 he saw that the shed door was broken. When he went in, he saw blood and the fugitive hiding. The suspect was still wearing the handcuffs he had been in on one arm. The maintenance man flagged down police who took Mohamed into custody without incident.

The manhunt for Mohamed forced the hospital to go into lockdown mode and for Prince George's County schools to divert school buses headed to Laurel High School. Students already at the school were sheltered in place. The students on the buses were taken to Greenbelt Middle School and later returned to the high school, according to spokesman John White.

Here's what Maryland State Police say led to the manhunt: Mohamed who had been arrested for auto theft complained of chest pains. Police took him to Laurel Regional Hospital.

Once at the the hospital, Mohamed and trooper got into a scuffle and he grabbed her gun. He fired several rounds and took off on foot with her gun, police say. The trooper pursued him and the suspect fired a round at her, according to First Sgt. Russell Newell.

While the trooper was roughed up during the scuffle, she is expected to be OK. No one else was injured. Police say Mohamed was last seen running down Contee Road near Route 1. He was wearing a white hospital gown and did not have on shoes. As part of the search, police stopped cars in the area.

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