Police in Burlington Iowa are now offering a reward in the ongoing search for an escaped inmate convicted in the attempted murder of a Delaware cop.
“The search for escaped prisoner Vonell Williams will continue overnight,” Des Moines County Police tweeted this evening. “Anyone with information is urged to call 911. Police are offering a reward up to $5,000.”Vonell Williams 20, escaped this morning from a van that had been driven from the Wicomico County Corrections Center to the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup, Maryland, Howard County Police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said.
The escape happened on the edges of the hospital grounds around 1010:5op.m., Llewellyn said. When a guard opened the door to the van,10:50 p.m. Williams pushed the guard down and ran into the woods, Llewellyn said.
Authorities believe Williams somehow got out of his handcuffs and waist chain while in the van.
There has been no sighting of Williams, who is serving a prison sentence of more than 100 years in Des Moines for attempted murder, Llewellyn said. He reportedly shot at a Burlington police officer’s house.
He is also facing charges in Wicomico County, Maryland, for multiple counts of attempted murder.
A Burlington judge reportedly found Williams not competent in 2017 to face trial on the attempted murder charges in 2017 Des Moines County. He was being transported to the hospital to undergo a regular six-month psychiatric evaluation as a condition set by the judge, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Wicomico County correctional officers had reportedly picked up Watson Thursday in Delaware.
Police do not know whether Williams has any outside help or whether he has left the area. Authorities lost sight of him as he ran into the woods but they were able to pick up a canine trail. So they know in which direction he was headed, Llewellyn said.