CLEVELAND, Ohio — Newly released video shows the moments a Cuyahoga County jail inmate escapes from a corrections officer and dashes through a busy Cleveland hospital filled with patients, staff and families.
It happened on July 22 at MetroHealth’s main campus.
According to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, Luther Tyes was taken to the hospital for a possible seizure.
Investigators said doctors at the hospital cleared Tyes to return to the jail where he was being held for a probation violation.
But video shows that as a deputy walked to get the car, Tyes stood up from a wheelchair, appeared to look back into the hospital, then ran away from the unarmed corrections officer watching him.
“This inmate was looking for an opportunity and he took it,” said Adam Chaloupka with the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the union representing Cuyahoga County corrections officers.
The video shows Tyes running through the hospital past staff as the jailer tries to corral the 32-year-old.
At one point in the video, Tyes, whose legs were shackled, fell down as he ran through a hallway.
Video showed Tyes get up, get around the corrections officer and continue running even as his pants fell down.
Investigators said Tyes then ran out of the hospital and onto Scranton Road, was he was picked up by MetroHealth police officers.
Chaloupka called what happened a red flag and blamed the sheriff’s department for not training corrections officers to handle inmates outside the jail’s walls.
“It would just take one inmate to run into one room of a person who hadn't been searched for one of these weapons and now you could have an inmate with a gun armed in the hospital,” said Chaloupka.
The union representing sheriff’s deputies questioned the use of unarmed jailers to accompany deputies taking inmates to and from the hospital.
“I think any time you have inmates being handled outside of a secured facility and it’s not a law enforcement officer, I don’t think that’s the best practice,” said Colin Sikon with Laborers’ Local 860.
Sikon said the escape was just one of a string of incidents that deputies have reported involving corrections officers working outside the jail.
“Not bringing a radio with them to communicate,” said Sikon. “Some of these are long details, people have fallen asleep.”
When asked if that worried him, Sikon said, “absolutely.”
A spokesperson for the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department said there have not been any recent changes in training or policies pertaining to transporting inmates.
