A white supremacist Idaho prison gang member and an accomplice remained at large Wednesday after the latter staged a daring nocturnal attempt to release the former while he was being evacuated from a Boise hospital, according to authorities.
Nicholas Umphenour has been named by police as the individual suspected of shooting two prison officers during the ambush. According to authorities, he is wanted on two counts of aggravated violence against law enforcement and one count of aiding and abetting an escape. A $2 million bail has been set for his apprehension.
In a press conference in the afternoon, Josh Tewalt, the director of the Idaho Department of Correction, stated that the attack and escape took place at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center shortly after two in the morning. The patient, Skylar Meade, was being released from the hospital when the ambush happened.
Corrections officers were getting ready to return Meade to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution when “an unknown suspect attacked and fired at the officers, striking two of them,” according to Winegar.
Meade was convicted in October 2016 for aggravated violence on a law enforcement officer with a pistol, has several past offenses, and is a proven gang member with links to the Aryan Knights, a White supremacist prison gang with its main stronghold in Idaho. According to Winegar, his release was scheduled for 2036.
Umphenour, according to the police, is five feet eleven inches tall, weighs around 160 pounds, has brown hair, and hazel eyes. A picture submitted by the department shows his head bald or shaven.
Meade, who is 5-foot-6 and weighs 150 pounds, has facial tattoos of the numerals 1 and 11 — for A and K, the first and eleventh letters of the alphabet, respectively, indicating the Aryan Knights group with which he is involved. Additionally, an A and K were tattooed on his belly, according to police-released photos.
According to the authorities, Meade and his accomplice were last seen driving a gray, four-door 2020 Honda Civic with the registration number 2TDF43U.
