A prison inmate serving a life sentence in the Christmas Day killing of a 1-year-old girl escaped from custody while being transported to a North Carolina hospital Tuesday morning.
Ramone Alston, 30, managed to free himself from leg restraints inside a prison van that was taking him for medical treatment in Hillsborough, local TV station WTVD reported, citing the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
Two correction officers were getting Alston out of the vehicle at a rear entrance when he "broke away," ran across a parking lot and disappeared into a wooded area, a spokesperson for the state Department of Adult Correction told WTVD.
The officers chased after Alston but couldn't keep up, Sherrif Charles Blackwood said.
"He's either within a 5-mile radius or he's in the rest of the world and we're searching both," Blackwood said.
Alston was handcuffed to a chain around his waist and was wearing a gray T-shirt, brown pants and New Balance sneakers when last seen, authorities said.
"Until we learn otherwise, the most distinguishing feature is someone running with a belly chain and handcuffs with a black box," sheriff's spokesperson Alecia Stemper said. "If you see him, call 911 immediately. Do not approach."
Alston is believed to have friends and relatives living in the area, about 35 miles northwest of Raleigh, but it's unknown if he planned the escape in advance, according to WTVD.
In 2018, a jury convicted Alston of first-degree murder in the Dec. 25, 2015, slaying of Maleah Williams, who was struck in the head during a drive-by shooting into a crowd gathered outside an apartment complex in Chapel Hill on the unusually warm day, according to reports at the time.
The defense claimed Alston only served as the driver but prosecutors said that two guns were fired and that Alston was seeking revenge for a series of home invasions during which he, his mother, his girlfriend and their child were held at gunpoint in 2014.
The other man charged in Maleah's killing, Pierre Je Bron Moore, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to at least 28 years in prison.
