A detainee who managed to escape from police custody while receiving medical attention at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach was recaptured Thursday afternoon, about an hour after his escape, according to 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 broad search operation that included ground units, boats from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Department, and helicopters, according to a report by Telemundo 51.
The authorities established a perimeter around the hospital and urged citizens to avoid the area during the operation, which saw a significant police presence starting at 4 in the afternoon.
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 detainee 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 provide precise details on how the escape occurred.
The incident occurs in a context of increased public attention on security during transfers and hospital custodianships in southern Florida.
Meanwhile, the region continues the 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.
It was not the first time a detainee had escaped from the custody of authorities during a hospital stay in South Florida. In recent years, there have been other similar cases at medical centers in Miami-Dade.
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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