NEWTON COUNTY, Ga. — Investigators say an inmate may have planned out his escape before being taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.
Timothy Shane escaped from the Atlanta hospital early Monday morning after being brought in for a suicide attempt on Sunday night.
Channel 2’s Candace McCowan has now learned that investigators believe Shane may have staged that suicide attempt to get to the hospital in the first place.
“What I will tell you is that it is my belief it was a staged suicide,” said Sheriff Eric Levett.
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Shane was found and captured in Newton County on Wednesday morning after nearly 50 hours on the run.
In that time, police say he stole two cars, crashing one in Atlanta and ditching the other at a Publix in Henry County.
Investigators say Shane was caught after he went around knocking on doors, looking for a phone to make a call with.
McCowan spoke with some of those neighbors, one of whom said she didn’t even know there was a missing man until after a man with dirt on his hands knocked on her door in the wee hours of the morning.
Then her daughter told her about the missing inmate.
She said police came and then left, but then she is sure Shane came back when she heard her hose running.
“I got lost in the woods, I was out hunting I lost my phone everything can I make a phone call,” said Shane in a doorbell video Rodneyka Twilley shared with Channel 2 Action News.
“I am licensed to carry, so he wasn’t going to come in here,” Twilley said. “He looks like something out of a horror movie.”
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Police say Shane ultimately found a vacant home, which is where police found and arrested him.
They are now questioning how he was able to get away from the deputy who was with him at the hospital.
That deputy has been placed on administrative leave while they investigate.
During medical testing Shane’s handcuffs were removed. And then somehow he got away from the deputy with him. The deputy is on administrative leave during an internal affairs investigation.
“It’s always the law enforcement’s job to secure an inmate that is the custody of law enforcement,” said Sheriff Levett about who is responsible for inmates when they’re taken to the hospital.
Rockdale County said they are reviewing their policies around inmates when they’re taken for medical treatment.
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