GWU Hospital escape: D.C. police didnt fully secure murder suspect, chief says

A murder suspect escaped from George Washington University Hospital on Wednesday because D.C. police officers did not secure one of his arms to a gurney as they changed his handcuffs in the emergency room, acting D.C. police chief Pamela A. Smith said.

The suspect, 30-year-old Christopher Patrick Haynes, ran away during the handcuff change, prompting authorities to order students and staff members at the university in Northwest Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood to shelter in place while they conducted a massive manhunt. D.C. police policies say that when a suspect is in custody at a hospital, officers “shall ensure that at least one arm or leg is secured to a fixed object at all times.”

At a news conference Thursday, police said they were still searching for Haynes, who they believed might have a handcuff still dangling from his arm, as they offered new details about how he was able to elude police.

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“He got out of the room because one of the officers removed one of the handcuffs from the suspect,” Smith said. “The suspect was not secured, from my understanding, secured to the gurney.”

Smith declined to comment on whether the officers violated procedures or rules, saying that will be a determination made by the Internal Affairs Bureau after an investigation concludes.

“I don’t want to make assumptions or assertions prior to that investigation being concluded,” Smith said.

Haynes had been charged in connection with the Aug. 12 shooting of 33-year-old Brent Hayward, and deputies with the U.S. Marshals Service Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force took him into custody Wednesday morning in Manassas, Va., on a warrant out of D.C. Superior Court, authorities said.

Robert Dixon, the U.S. marshal for D.C. Superior Court, said Haynes was arrested without incident and did not complain of being hurt. “There was nothing wrong with him when we turned him over to” D.C. police, Dixon said. “He did not complain to us.”

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Smith said that later Thursday afternoon, while being processed by D.C. police, Haynes complained of a preexisting ankle injury. She said one D.C. police officer took him to the hospital.

The D.C. police department’s general orders say that transportation of a prisoner to a hospital “shall be conducted by two members, unless exigent circumstances exist,” and that “security-risk prisoners shall always be transported by two members.”

At the hospital, Smith said, a second D.C. police officer arrived to assist with Haynes. The chief said Haynes “physically assaulted” one officer while police were attempting to secure him to the hospital bed and then fled. Both officers pursued Haynes, according to Smith, but he got away.

Federal and local officers with long guns searched the Foggy Bottom and Georgetown areas for hours, shutting down streets and a bridge into Virginia while a helicopter scanned from the skies. Students at George Washington University were plunged into lockdown, as an alert blasted to their phones about the suspect on the loose. On Thursday, police released a video that appeared to show him in someone’s fenced-in yard.

Arielle Geismar, 22, the student body president, had just given a presentation in class on how drones gather intelligence when she noticed other students shifting in their seats, looking at one another and whispering about the alert from university officials.

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She raised her hand and told the professor something was going on on campus. Students pulled down the blinds, locked the classroom door, texted friends and family, and checked social media to try to figure out what was happening.

Geismar said they didn’t know whether there was an active shooter. “Our generation — we’re the lockdown generation,” Geismar said. “So it was an incredibly scary situation to be in.”

Smith said the thorough search led police to conclude Haynes had left the area. Campus officials, who had described Smith as potentially dangerous, lifted the shelter-in-place order after 8 p.m.

Smith said Haynes, who lived in Gainesville, Va., is known to frequent several locations in D.C. and has ties to Prince William, Stafford and Fauquier counties in Virginia.

Police said he fatally shot Hayward in the 1500 block of Kenilworth Avenue NE in August. Smith said police have notified members of Hayward’s family and another man who was injured in the August shooting about Haynes being at large. Efforts to reach Hayward’s relatives were not successful on Thursday.

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Police said in an arrest warrant made public Thursday that Hayward was found shot in the head outside a convenience store and that investigators also found a firearm on him. Police alleged that a dispute and a physical altercation preceded the shooting.

Police on Thursday updated their description of Haynes. He is Black with shoulder-length dreadlocks and has a Washington Nationals tattoo on his neck, they said.

Smith said he was wearing a black T-shirt, gray shorts and one red shoe. On Wednesday night, police said he had black handcuffs hanging from his right wrist.

According to InsideNoVa, Haynes has been on the run before. In 2020, the website reported that Haynes was accused of trying to run over police officers with a vehicle in Manassas and then fleeing. The outcome of that case was not immediately clear.

Authorities are offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information that leads to Haynes’s arrest, authorities said Thursday.

Susan Svrluga contributed to this report.

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