Suspect Who Escaped from Hospital Arrested in Indiana

A man who escaped from an ambulance when he was sent by the Department of Corrections without an officer to be checked out at an area hospital for chest pains has been arrested in Indiana.

The Prince George’s County Police Department arrested Byron Matthews, 54, Tuesday during a traffic stop; he has a 2011 fugitive warrant for distribution of marijuana in Pennsylvania.

Following his arrest, Matthews was taken to the county Department of Corrections for processing. Minutes after the arresting PGPD officer left the jail, Matthews began complaining of chest pains. He was put in an ambulance by corrections staffers for transport to Southern Maryland Hospital in Clinton, but no officer went with him. When the ambulance arrived at the hospital, Matthews was gone, police say.

“The bottom line is he should have been supervised,” Yolanda Evans, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Corrections, told The Washington Post. “One of our officers should have been with him until police got with him.”

Police tracked a cellphone Matthews purchased under an alias, Evans told the newspaper, which showed he was at a hotel in Indianapolis.