5 Guards Overpowered at Hospital
By Rosalind S. Helderman and Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 3, 2008
A Maryland inmate overpowered five guards at a Laurel hospital yesterday morning and took two guns, setting off an intense manhunt that ended when the prisoner was fatally wounded seven hours later in a shootout with police at a cemetery in Prince George's County, authorities said.
Immediately after his escape, Kelvin D. Poke shot a man outside Laurel Regional Hospital and stole his car, prompting 10 county schools nearby to secure their buildings and putting law enforcement officials throughout the region in a heightened state of alert. Poke abandoned the car in the District and carjacked another vehicle, authorities said. As hundreds of officers joined the search, county police spotted Poke at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland.
The escape raised concerns about the safety of treating violent offenders -- Poke, 45, was serving a life sentence for carjacking and kidnapping -- at community hospitals. In November, a prisoner wrestled a gun away from a state trooper at the same hospital and escaped, avoiding capture for five hours.
Poke, an inmate at the maximum-security Jessup Correctional Institution, was admitted to the hospital Tuesday after complaining of chest pains, said Greg Shipley, a Maryland State Police spokesman. When Poke escaped, about 8 a.m. on a chilly day, he was shirtless, shoeless and wearing prison-issue jeans.
In his room on the hospital's fourth floor, Poke overpowered the two correctional officers -- under Department of Public Safety protocol, only one was armed -- assigned to guard him, Shipley said. Two officers guarding another inmate responded and were also overpowered, he said. Poke seized a .38-caliber handgun from each of the armed guards, Shipley said.
Although Poke fired several shots in the hallway, Shipley said, none of the officers was injured, and it was unclear whether Poke fired at the officers or to break his leg shackles. He was not handcuffed at the time of the escape, Shipley said.
An unarmed private security guard for the hospital was also overpowered when he responded to the uproar. At gunpoint, Poke forced him down a staircase, where one of the officers' guns was later found, and outside the building.
There, Poke fired through the window of a Toyota Camry, striking the 51-year-old driver in the head, and fled in the car. The driver, whom police have not identified, was hospitalized in good condition.
Ten schools in Laurel were locked down, and some hospital employees locked themselves in their offices as authorities fanned out in search of the escaped man.
The hunt moved to the District at midday, when police recovered the Toyota, on fire in the 1100 block of First Street NW. Police said Poke carjacked a second vehicle nearby, a D.C. government Ford Explorer Sport Trac.
Maj. Joseph McCann, commander of the Prince George's police district in which the cemetery is located, said at a late afternoon news conference that county police had intensified their patrols near the District after the second carjacking. According to Cpl. Clinton Copeland, a police spokesman, investigators said police were acting on a tip when they spotted the Ford Explorer at the cemetery, parked and visible from Suitland Road, about 3:30 p.m.
McCann said it was unclear why Poke was at the cemetery. He said Poke, by then wearing a white T-shirt, opened fire without saying a word. "He just fired on our officers," McCann said.
More than one officer returned fire, McCann said. Poke was taken to Prince George's Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:18 p.m.
Late yesterday, county police were interviewing a woman who was with Poke at the cemetery. She was not hit during the shootout but suffered "very minor injuries," McCann said.
"Our belief at the moment is this was a person that was a stranger to this individual, but we don't know that for certain," he said.
A video camera on the dashboard of a cruiser captured the shootout, and McCann said the recording will be released "at the appropriate time."
The hunt for the armed prisoner left the public jittery, particularly around the Laurel hospital, where a helicopter flew overhead for much of the day. The neighborhood was shaken by the escape of the inmate in November, when roads were closed and a helicopter had buzzed overhead for hours.
Two students at Laurel High School said the principal announced early in the day that the school was locked down.
"For the first period, we did work, then for the second period we just did nothing," said 10th-grader Tashawn Hart, 16.
"Yeah, 7:45 to 2:25, nothing," said Jamal Hill, 16.
Poke had a history of violent crime. He had been sentenced in a 2005 incident in which authorities said he jumped a Hyattsville woman just after midnight in the parking lot of her apartment building as she loaded luggage into her car.
According to court documents, the woman fought back, but Poke overpowered her, pushing her into the passenger seat of her silver Mazda 626. He then demanded cash, taking $500 from the woman, before forcing her to the floor of the car and driving off with his hand clasped around her neck.
According to the documents, Poke told the woman that he was armed and threatened to rape her but said he would release her the next day if she cooperated. Ultimately, he left her on the side of a road in Northeast Washington. Two days later, U.S. Park Police found Poke with the car, broken down on the side of George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia.
Reached yesterday by phone, the victim in the 2005 incident said she was "horrified and shocked" to hear that Poke had escaped. She said she felt no relief at his death but was pleased that she would no longer have to fear him.
"I just feel bad for the people he attacked, and I hope they're okay," said the woman, who asked that she not be identified.
The woman said that during her encounter with Poke, he was alternately angry and calm. She said she believes Poke let her go because she falsely told him she had children. "He seemed to become more passive then," she said.
Poke was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison in connection with a 1995 robbery in the District.
He was also convicted of a 1983 armed robbery of a Safeway grocery in Prince George's. According to court documents, in that incident, Poke pulled a gun on a clerk and shouted at her: "This is a holdup. I have a gun. Don't make me blow your head off."
"He's real crazy," the clerk said yesterday. "I couldn't get the drawer open. He put the gun in my stomach and said, '. . . I'm gonna kill you.' I thought I saw my life run before my eyes."
She added, "I remember it like it was yesterday." She also requested not to be identified.
Poke had been appealing his life sentence, said Maryland Assistant Public Defender Martha Weisheit, who represented him. Weisheit argued in court papers that life without parole was an inappropriate sentence, given that Poke had let the carjacking victim go unharmed.
"She was certainly frightened, and it was a crime, but she was not hurt," Weisheit said.
Attempts to contact relatives of Poke were not successful yesterday.
Staff writers Paul Duggan, Nelson Hernandez and Sue Anne Pressley Montes and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
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