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Guard Shot as Inmate Escapes Hospital in Fairfax

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) - Police in northern Virginia say one shot was fired as a guard wrestled with a prisoner, who then fled a hospital with a gun setting off a lockdown and search.
 
Fairfax County Police Chief Ed Roessler says one shot was fired during the struggle around 3 a.m. Tuesday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church.
 
Roessler says the prisoner, identified as Wossen Assaye, was last seen wearing a hospital gown near the room where he was being held. Roessler says Assaye was being held on federal bank robbery charges involving a suspect who fled on a bicycle.
 
He says in Fairfax County police custody, a prisoner would typically be handcuffed, but he didn't know what federal procedures are. He says police have searched the hospital and will keep searching.
 
 

Don Rush is the News Director and Senior Producer of News and Public Affairs at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.