A prisoner suspected of robbing 12 banks in the Washington, D.C. area and fleeing on a bicycle escaped from police again early Tuesday morning, but this time his freedom was short-lived.
While one guard took a bathroom break, the prisoner, Wossen Assaye, managed to slip off his shackles and overpower a second guard, wrestling her gun away and using her briefly as a human shield, USA Today reported.
Assaye, who was being treated for a previous suicide attempt, fled the hospital still wearing his hospital gown and no shoes. The first guard took a shot at Assaye, but missed, before the prisoner escaped down a stairwell and onto the streets in Northern Virginia.
The escape led police on a nine-hour manhunt, which saw Assaye allegedly steal two cars before he was captured getting off a Metro bus in Southeast Washington, D.C.
According to the Washington Post, the whole ordeal began around 3 a.m. Tuesday. It led to the hospital complex being put on lockdown and police officials shut down roads around the hospital for almost five hours, leading to major back ups of rush hour traffic in the area.
The suspect has come to be known as the ‘Bicycle Bandit’ after federal authorities charged him with one bank robbery, and they suspect he is the perpetrator in a string of 11 other robberies in the area.
Assaye was originally arrested on March 20 and charged with robbing a federal credit union in Alexandria, Va. In all, authorities believe he robbed the banks of around $32,000. He is currently being held without bond in a Northern Virginia jail on the escape charges.
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