Authorities are still searching for a murderer who escaped from custody after they say he beat a guard, took his keys and uniform and sped off in his vehicle Wednesday.
Kankakee County Sheriff Tim Bukowski blamed a breakdown in the County Jail’s security system for the early morning escape of Kamron T. Taylor, 23, who was awaiting sentencing, and authorities say he should be considered armed and dangerous.
The sheriff’s office had issued an alert Wednesday for 15-year-old Savannah Bell, saying she “may be in the company” of Taylor but said a little before 4 p.m. that she had been found. About 5:30 p.m., Kankakee County Undersheriff Mike Downey said that police located the girl about 4 p.m. and that reports quoting him as saying she had not been found were incorrect.
Taylor was convicted in February of killing a 21-year-old man in a botched robbery and is scheduled to be sentenced in May.
Taylor overwhelmed a correctional officer about 3 a.m. Wednesday during a routine check of the pod containing Taylor’s cell at the Jerome Combs Detention Center, Bukowski said.
Taylor escaped from a two-person cell after the last security check and hid in waiting. The 38-year-old officer, a 10-year employee who had been at work since 11 p.m., was attacked from the side, choked and hit in the head, disabling him. Taylor stripped the officer, donned his uniform and managed to fool employees monitoring the three doors that stood between him and freedom. Bukowski said both men are African-American and about the same build.
Taylor left the facility at 3:12 a.m., located the officer’s car using a fob on the set of keys he’d stolen and drove away, abandoning the car in the 12000 block of South Lincoln Avenue about 8:30 a.m. Investigators are questioning Taylor’s relatives and associates in the area, as well as inmates in the pod who were awakened by the struggle. They are also reviewing video related to Taylor’s escape.
Bukowski estimated 40 minutes passed before the semiconscious officer was discovered on the floor. “He was in and out of consciousness, unable to understand questions put to him,” Bukowski said.
Due to the time of night, similarity of appearance and lack of a major disturbance, employees monitoring the doors “didn’t detect anything out of the ordinary,” Bukowski said.
Bukowski said the detention center’s pod system has 28 cells per pod. Taylor was being held in an area separate from the general population. Taylor previously briefly escaped Kankakee police, running for several blocks before he was captured, after his June 24, 2013, arrest for the killing. He also attempted to flee Feb. 27 after he was convicted of murder.
On Wednesday, Bukowski said it was “premature” to link Taylor’s escape to employee cutbacks in May, saying, “We believed what we had done at the time was appropriate.” But Bukowski also acknowledged, “The system broke down. Obviously somebody didn’t do their job properly.”
The officer remained in the intensive care unit at Provena St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee on Wednesday morning. Bukowski termed his condition serious, saying he has undergone a CT scan and is undergoing additional tests.
The Jerome Combs Detention Center, about 5 miles south of the Kankakee County Courthouse, opened in 2005 and houses 450 inmates, including people charged through the U.S. Marshals Office and Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
Local law enforcement agencies were helping hunt for Taylor, and the sheriff’s department has asked for help from the U.S. Marshals Service’s Fugitive Task Force.
Taylor is 5-foot-9 and about 170 pounds, according to authorities. Anyone with information should call 911 or 815-933-3324.
Taylor was found guilty of first-degree murder in the June 2013 slaying of Nelson Williams Jr. during a botched robbery at Williams’ home in Kankakee. He faces a sentence of 45 years to life. He was convicted previously of robbery and resisting arrest in Tennessee.
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Williams was shot in the head on his front porch during a scuffle with a man demanding money. A 911 recording capturing the sound of the single gunshot was played for jurors. The victim’s fiancee, Rebecca Hoover, witnessed the shooting and provided dramatic testimony, telling the court she saw a man put Williams in a headlock and shoot him.
She and other witnesses acknowledged they did not see the gunman’s face, but they identified him as Taylor based on his clothing, including a blue hoodie, black jeans and white sneakers.
Taylor’s attorney argued that he was mistakenly identified, saying he “made an unfortunate choice of clothing.”
Sullivan is a freelance reporter for the Tribune. The Associated Press and baiduhai reporter Alex Chachkevitch contributed.