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Armed inmate escapes from hospital

Healthcare Security Weekly, February 9, 2004

Police are looking for an inmate who escaped from a Nebraska hospital with a gun last week.

Michael McGuire, 54, was visiting Johnson County Hospital in Tecumseh for a medical test, when he asked if he could use the hospital restroom. McGuire is an inmate at Tecumseh State Prison, serving a sentence for rape and kidnapping.

The prison officials guarding McGuire reportedly unshackled one arm so he could go to the bathroom. Inside the restroom, McGuire turned a gun on the guards. McGuire managed to leave the hospital by concealing the weapon as he walked between the correctional officers, the Omaha-World Herald reports.

McGuire reportedly took the guards to the department's van and drove away, later handcuffing them to a tree, according to Omahachannel.com.

By Friday, police still hadn't captured McGuire even though video surveillance on a nearby college campus recorded him making phone calls on a pay phone.

McGuire reportedly didn't know when his hospital appointment would take place, says Steve King, a spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, who spoke to the Omaha-World Herald. "He knew he had an appointment some time in the next month, and he may have had somebody plant the gun there on that eventuality," King told the Omaha-World Herald.

Only hospital staff members and prison officials knew the exact time of McGuire's appointment, the Omaha-World Herald reports. The staff will be interviewed and McGuire's visitation records and phone logs will also undergo a review.

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