Global Courant 2023-05-09 12:04:32
Authorities are looking for two inmates who disappeared from a Pennsylvania jail for nearly 19 hours before the facility learned they were missing. One of the escapees is charged with killing four people in three separate shootings.
Ameen Hurst, 18, and Nasir Grant, 24, escaped from the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center around 8 p.m. Sunday, according to the Philadelphia Prisons Department. Hurst is described as 6″ tall and 140 pounds, while Grant is listed as 5 feet, 9 inches and 160 pounds.
The two men left the prison grounds by cutting a hole in a fence around a recreation area. Philadelphia Prisons Department commissioner Blanche Carney said this was the first escape in the city’s prison system since 2010.
Carney said the facility learned of the pair’s escape around 3 p.m. Monday. Counts at 11:00 PM on Sunday, 3:00 AM on Monday, and 7:00 AM on Monday reportedly showed that all prisoners had been counted, even though video footage of the escape showed that Hurst and Grant had already disappeared by then.
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Ameen Hurst, 18, and Nasir Grant, 24, escaped from the Philadelphia Industrial Detention Center by punching a hole in a recreational fence around 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 7, 2023. (Philadelphia Prison Ward)
“We established protocols and those protocols were not followed,” Carney said at a news conference Monday night. “That yard should have been secured and the fence shouldn’t have been broken.”
According to Philadelphia Police Department Deputy Investigative Commissioner Frank Vanore, Hurst was arrested on March 21, 2021, in connection with four fatal shootings in Philadelphia.
Hurst allegedly shot and killed a man in Winwood’s 1800 block on Christmas Eve in 2020. The other three shootings took place in 2021 between March 12 and March 18.
Vanore said Hurst allegedly shot four people on March 12, two of them behind an apartment building in the 1400 block of North 76th Street. to be a “case of mistaken identity”, according to FOX 29 Philadelphia.
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The two men escaped from prison through a hole in a fence surrounding a recreation area. (iStock)
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“He is a very dangerous person as far as we know, and we are seeking the public’s help to get him back,” Vanore told reporters on Monday. “We want to take this person back into custody.”
Grant was in custody on charges of drug conspiracy and gun conspiracy, Blanche said. The two men are believed to be together.
The Philadelphia Police Department and U.S. Marshals assist in the search for Hurst and Grant.
Anyone with information regarding their whereabouts is asked to call Northeast Detectives at 215-686-3153, 215-686-TIPS (8477), or 911.
