A detainee who managed to escape from police custody while receiving medical attention at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach was recaptured on Thursday afternoon, approximately one hour after his escape, as reported by the Miami Beach Police Department.
The subject had been arrested on Wednesday, and upon requiring medical attention, was taken to the hospital located at 4300 Alton Road. Once admitted to the facility, according to the police, "somehow he managed to escape" from the custody of the officers watching over him.
The incident triggered a large-scale search operation that included ground units, boats from the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Department, and helicopters, according to a report from Telemundo 51.
Authorities established a perimeter around the hospital and requested that the public avoid the area during the operation, which saw a significant police presence starting at 4 PM.
Around 5:30 in the afternoon, the police confirmed that the individual had been located and returned to custody, posing no danger to the public at any time.
The arrested individual was found within the hospital grounds and was unarmed at the time of his recapture.
The authorities did not disclose the identity of the individual nor provided specific details about how the escape occurred.
The incident occurs in a context of increased public attention on security during transfers and hospital custody in southern Florida.
Parallely, the region continues to search for Sherman Kemp, a 47-year-old federal drug trafficker nicknamed "Goose," who disappeared on September 11 during a transfer from the federal prison FCI Miami to FCI Jesup in Georgia, where he was serving a 27-year sentence for cocaine trafficking.
The police did not confirm whether the fugitive from Mount Sinai was the same person as Kemp, although all indications suggest that these are different cases, as noted by the Miami Herald.
This type of escape—where a detainee takes advantage of a medical visit to flee—has occurred repeatedly in South Florida, raising concerns about custody protocols in hospital facilities.
The Internal Affairs Department of the Miami Beach Police has opened an investigation to determine how the individual managed to escape while under police surveillance inside the hospital.
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