The hunt for an escaped inmate serving a life sentence for murder moved to a longer-term phase Wednesday as law enforcement spent a second day searching for clues.
The 33-hour ground search for escapee Ramone Alston involved 335 officers from 19 agencies and covered at least 1,335 acres, said Kirby Saunders, director of Orange County Emergency Services.
As the initial search wrapped up Wednesday, the N.C. Department of Adult Correction was poised to take the lead in the investigation. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office will continue to serve as a command center, Sheriff Charles Blackwood said.
The department has received two “rock-solid” leads, and a $35,000 reward for Alston’s capture has spawned a significant and steady number of calls to the tip line, Blackwood said. He is confident that Alston is not within five miles of the hospital, he said, while urging residents and businesses again to check their doorbell and surveillance cameras for any glimpses of the 30-year-old man.
“I’ve known Ramone since he was born,” said Blackwood, who went to school with Alston’s father. “He was a troubled child, and he has been involved in criminal activity since he was a juvenile. He is extremely cagey, and he is extremely dangerous.”
How did Ramone Alston escape?
Alston has been on the run since 7 a.m. Tuesday, after he removed his leg restraints during a prison-van ride to UNC Hospitals from Bertie Correctional Institution. He was being moved from the van to the hospital for a medical appointment when he knocked an N.C. Department of Adult Correction guard to the ground and ran into the woods, officials said.
Alston’s hands were still bound by handcuffs connected to a belly chain. The officers tried to catch him, but he ran away, Blackwood said. Alston has since been charged with felony escape and will be moved to a higher level of security when he is caught.
Law enforcement spent the last two days knocking on doors to talk with residents near the hospital and combing through often steep terrain with dogs to pick up Alston’s trail. The dogs indicated Alston might be headed north before losing his trail, Blackwood said.
Officers from several agencies returned to different areas Wednesday to look again for clues. One team from multiple jurisdictions entered the woods several times behind Home Depot, working with a search dog and officers from the state’s Prison Emergency Response Team to scout the area along the railroad tracks that run through Hillsborough and surrounding woods.
Those officers and others were looking “for any signs that Mr. Alston may have been there — any footprints, any discarded remains, handcuffs, attire — anything we can find that can confirm a direction of travel and how he has evaded capture,” Saunders said.
In addition, an “exhaustive investigative search is happening in the rest of the world outside of that immediate vicinity,” he said.
Local police, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, N.C. Highway Patrol troopers, and the Department of Adult Correction’s prison emergency response team have been brought in to help, and the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office got involved on Wednesday.
Blackwood and Todd Ishee, secretary of the N.C. Department of Adult Correction, have not shared details about how Alston managed to get out of his leg restraints and escape.
The department is reviewing what happened from the time Alston was removed from housing in Bertie County at 3:56 a.m. Tuesday and the van left for Hillsborough 11 minutes later, to the time Alston escaped from the hospital parking lot at 7 a.m., he said.
Department of Adult Correction spokesman Keith Acree clarified Wednesday afternoon that the officers had their firearms on them at the time of the escape, and not in a lockbox as previously reported. But it is understandable they did not draw their weapons, considering the hospital environment and Alston’s sudden move, Blackwood said.
“Your brain takes a few minutes to analyze what just occurred,” Blackwood said.
“They were not expecting that. They weren’t ready for that … and to condemn those folks for what they’ve been doing and what they were doing is wrong,” Blackwood said. “That man had a plan, and there was nothing they could do to know it.”
$35,000 reward; Durham Tech still locked down
The state Department of Correction is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to Alston’s capture. On Wednesday, the U.S. Marshals added $10,000 to the reward.
“Somebody knows out there that this was planned, and they know who was involved in it, and we hope that this motivates them to do the right thing and let us know so that we can bring this to a successful conclusion and a just conclusion,” Blackwood said.
On Wednesday afternoon, he warned anyone helping Alston that they could face a felony charge of aiding and abetting an escaped inmate.
“If we can prove that you’re involved in this, you’re going to be charged. We just want everybody to think about that while that $35,000 is hanging out there,” Blackwood said.
The escape briefly put the UNC Hospitals campus in Hillsborough on lockdown Tuesday. A lockdown at Durham Tech’s Orange County campus, which is across the street, remained in place.
The community college was on “yellow status” Wednesday, with virtual classes and only essential personnel coming to campus. The college, which has served as a command center for law enforcement during the search, is expected to return to normal operations.
Alston is described as 5-foot-11 and 230 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gray T-shirt, brown pants and white New Balance tennis shoes. He may also be wearing black, prison-issued shorts under his pants.
Blackwood said Alston has two tattoos. One, on his chest, is a dotted tattoo of the word “flame” with a star at the center. The other is the word “niece” on his right arm. Alston had dreadlocks when he escaped, but he may have changed his appearance, Blackwood said.
Anyone who sees Alston should call 911 immediately and not approach him, Blackwood said. The public can also call a special hotline set up to receive tips in the case at 919-324-1082. Tips can also be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov.
Serving life sentence for murder
Alston is serving life in prison at Bertie Correctional Institution in Windsor, N.C., after being convicted in 2018 of first-degree murder in the Christmas Day shooting of 14-month-old Maleah Williams in Chapel Hill in 2015.
Williams was fatally shot during a drive-by shooting in the Trinity Court apartments parking lot, where children were playing with their Christmas presents. A bullet hit Maleah in the back of the head as her mother Tylena Williams held the girl in her arms. She died in the hospital three days later.
Alston was driving the car when it stopped near a dumpster, and he told investigators that Pierre Je Bron Moore, who was planning to confront someone at the complex, got out and started shooting. Prosecutors said during his trial that Alston also started shooting.
Moore was convicted of second-degree murder in 2019 and sentenced to nearly 35 years in prison. He is currently being housed at Tabor Correctional Institution, records show. Prosecutors dismissed charges against a third man suspected of being involved in 2016.
Blackwood said he has not spoken to Maleah’s family, but his daughter has, and they are “re-living this, and they are hurting all over again.”
Staff writers Jessica Banov and Korie Dean contributed to this story.
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