Inmate, Convicted Of Murder, Escapes From Illinois Jail, Considered 'Armed And Dangerous'

Officials in Kankakee County, Illinois, are searching for an inmate who escaped from a local jail early Wednesday morning, attacking a guard and stealing his SUV. Kamron Taylor had been awaiting sentencing after being convicted of murder and is considered “armed and dangerous” by the sheriff’s office.

Taylor, 23, escaped from the Jerome Combs Detention Center at about 3 a.m. Wednesday, NBC Chicago reported. He overpowered a correctional officer and took his keys and uniform before driving away in the officer's car, a 2012 Chevrolet Equinox, a local news site reported. Locals were asked to call 911 if they saw Taylor or the Chevy SUV.

This was not Taylor's first escape attempt. In late February, immediately after he was found guilty of murder following a robbery gone wrong in June 2013, he tried to escape from the courtroom but was wrestled to the ground by officials. He faces a sentence of 45 years to life in prison for the murder.

The Jerome Combs Detention Center, one of two jails in Kankakee County, has a capacity of about 450 inmates. Taylor’s escape came just a day after a prisoner who escaped from a hospital in Virginia was caught after a half-day manhunt. That prisoner, Wossen Assaye, was found in Washington, D.C., Tuesday and taken into custody.

Assaye was arrested last week for allegedly taking part in a number of bank robberies in northern Virginia. While he was being held in city jail, he tried to hang himself and was taken to a hospital for medical treatment, where he was overseen by guards. He managed to overpower one of them early Tuesday morning and take her weapon before making his escape.

The hunt for Assaye involved helicopters and heavily armed police officers and lasted about eight hours before he was captured about 11:15 a.m. and the gun he was carrying recovered, local NBC station WRC--TV reported.