INGHAM COUNTY, Mich. — A prisoner who escaped from a moving police vehicle is in critical condition at a local hospital and has caused US-127 near Mount Hope to close indefinitely, police confirmed Wednesday afternoon.
Ingham County Sheriff Wriggelsworth told Fox 47 that the inmate was riding in the sheriff's transport unit, heading back to the station from the Veterans Memorial Courthouse, when he jumped.
He says the inmate opened the door and "lept out," rolling onto the highway.
Wriggelsworth said the inmate is in critical condition at a nearby hospital.
At 2:15 p.m. southbound US 127, south of 496 was closed, due to the incident, and will be closed until further notice.
Michigan State Police Lt. Brian Oleksyk said the van was transporting 11 inmates from an Ingham County Court to a jail in Mason.
Only one inmate escaped the van while it was moving, and Oleksyk said it was unclear late Wednesday afternoon how he escaped.
The inmate who tried to escape the area is in critical condition and was sent to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Oleksyk said.
The inmate sustained injuries “resulting from jumping out of the van striking the road,” Oleksyk said.
Glenn Irby, 42, of Lansing, saw police with their guns drawn near the van at a time he suspects must have been minutes after the inmate jumped out of the vehicle.
Irby was driving along northbound US-127 at that time with his girlfriend, Jamie Cassidy, and sensed a dangerous situation immediately.
"We were driving north on 127 just past Jolly Road and a cop car went buzzing by and I said "who is he chasing?" And then we looked and there was a van stopped with three Lansing cop cars behind and I say "well what did they do?" Irby said. "And so as we drove up I saw it was a transport vehicle and looked and the back door was open. We saw two police officers standing there with their hands on their hip as if they were ready to draw their guns and they were running off on to something. The others look like they were running after somebody."
As Irby looked in the opposite direction, he saw three police vehicles parked behind the van near the highway median and armed police searching a wooded area near the shoulder.
“I immediately thought somebody escaped,” Irby said. “And it wasn’t like police were just standing around. They were going somewhere looking for something.”
Multiple law enforcement agencies were on the scene.
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