Inova Fairfax Hospital In Falls Church, Virginia, In Lockdown After Active Shooter Situation

Update as of 12:19 p.m. EDT: Police caputured Wossen Assaye nearly nine hours after he escaped from a hospital prison in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. Assaye was found in Southeast D.C. near the intersection of Pennsylvania and Minnesota avenues and was arrested around 11:30 a.m. A bystander recognized Assaye and called the authorities, according to NBC Washington.

Update as of 8:00 a.m. EDT: The lockdown on the Inova Fairfax hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, has been lifted, hospital authorities said in a statement. The prisoner, Wossen Assaye, has escaped in a stolen car, according to Fairfax County police.

Update as of 7:15 a.m. EDT: Wossen Assaye, an armed prisoner who escaped from the Inova Fairfax hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, early on Tuesday, was being held on federal charges for armed bank robbery, the Fairfax County police said, through their official Twitter account. Police officials are searching the area around the hospital and have asked people in the area to call them with information about anything suspicious.

Original story:

Fairfax County police confirm that there is an active shooter situation at a hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, early Tuesday morning. The Inova Fairfax Hospital went into lockdown as reports of shots being fired emerged.

A SWAT team is reportedly searching for a suspect in a parking garage near the Children's Center and Women's Center at the hospital, local media reports said. Police are reportedly searching the rooms of the hospital for the armed man, ABC News reported, adding that the suspect is an escaped prisoner.

Officers were transferring a prisoner from a jail in neighboring Alexandria to the hospital when the inmate escaped, ABC News reported, citing police officials, adding that the suspect is considered armed and dangerous.

Fairfax police say that the prisoner, who is a black male, was wearing a hospital gown when he escaped from the hospital. Police identified the prisoner as Wossen Assaye and said that he escaped with a private security official's gun.