PHILADELPHIA — A task force led by federal marshals recaptured the second of two inmates who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison earlier this month, a man who had been held on charges in four slayings, authorities said.
Ameen Hurst, 18, was rearrested Wednesday morning in Philadelphia, according to Robert Clark, a supervisory deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service. Authorities had been working with the family since Tuesday evening after they called seeking to have Hurst surrender, but several deadlines for that to happen had come and gone, Clark said.
Authorities staked out several places where Hurst was believed to be hiding. Clark said that when authorities at one of the locations saw Hurst get into a car with two family members, they arrested him. Also arrested was his brother, Amir Woods, 24, who was later charged with hindering apprehension, conspiracy, escape and other counts, police said. A listed number for Woods couldn’t be found Wednesday and it’s unclear whether he has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
Hurst and Nasir Grant, 24, escaped from the Philadelphia Industrial Correction Center on May 7 by cutting a hole in a fence surrounding a recreation yard, the Philadelphia Department of Prisons has said.
Before the escape, Hurst had been held on four counts of murder. Grant was being held on conspiracy drug and weapons charges. Officials have said the inmates were housed in the same unit, but different cells.
Grant was arrested Thursday night after members of the same fugitive task force saw him leave a north Philadelphia home dressed as a woman. He was stopped in a car nearby and arrested.
The men were gone for nearly 19 hours before officials knew they were missing. A top city official said an “extensive” review of the prison and its operations is planned and called it “unfortunate” that nearby residents and the city at large weren’t immediately warned. “We never want that to happen again,” said Tumar Alexander, the city’s managing director
Three people, including a fellow inmate, have been charged with aiding the escape, and officials are trying to determine whether anyone else at the prison was involved. Mayor Jim Kenney said whoever had the responsibility of conducting several bed checks “can’t count or could count and did something wrong.”
Michael Abrams and Xianni Stalling, both 21, helped the men leave the area around the prison, after inmate Jose Flores-Huerta, 35, acted as a lookout helping them elude guards, Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore of the Philadelphia police department said Wednesday.
Flores-Huerta is one of several people charged in the September 2021 death of 28-year-old Isidro Cortez of Queens, New York, outside a well-known cheesesteak shop; his attorney has said other suspects were primarily responsible.
