Idaho Prison Gang Member and Accomplice Arrested After Hospital Ambush

An Idaho prison gang member and an accomplice who fled a Boise hospital on Wednesday in a brazen escape in which three corrections officers were shot were arrested on Thursday, according to the authorities, who said they were investigating whether the men had killed two people while they were at large.

The episode began about 2 a.m. Wednesday, when Idaho Department of Correction officers took Skylar Meade, 31, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, to the Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, for medical treatment, the Boise Police Department said on Wednesday.

As the officers were about to take him back to prison, they were attacked by someone who was later identified as Nicholas Umphenour, 28, according to the authorities. Three officers were shot — two by Mr. Umphenour, and one by a police officer who arrived at the hospital just after the ambush, the authorities said. Mr. Meade and Mr. Umphenour, who were prison mates for about four years, fled before Boise Police officers arrived at the hospital, the Police Department said.

While Mr. Meade and Mr. Umphenour were on the loose, the police warned that the two men were considered “armed and dangerous.” They were caught without incident around 2 p.m. Thursday after a brief vehicle pursuit in the Twin Falls area, about 120 miles southeast of Boise, Chief Ron Winegar of the Boise Police Department said at a news conference.

Lt. Col. Sheldon Kelley with the Idaho State Police said at the news conference that the authorities were investigating whether separate homicides of two men — one in Nez Perce County and another, about 100 miles northeast in Clearwater County in Idaho — are tied to Mr. Meade and Mr. Umphenour.

Colonel Kelley said that shackles found at the scene of one of the killings helped the authorities establish a potential link to the two suspects.