By Tammy Grubb
The Charlotte Observer
ORANGE COUNTY, N.C. — The hunt for an escaped inmate serving a life sentence for murder stretched into a second day Wednesday as a reward for his capture grew to $35,000.
Law enforcement received some tips overnight, and tracks picked up by search dogs indicate he might be headed north, Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said.
He urged residents and businesses to check their doorbell and surveillance cameras to see if they captured any glimpses of the 30-year-old escaped inmate, Ramone Alston.
“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.”
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. Alston was being transferred from the van to the hospital for a medical appointment when he knocked one 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 escaped, Blackwood said.
At least 114 local, state and federal law enforcement officers continued to search a 760-acre area through the night, after knocking on doors Tuesday to talk with residents near the hospital and combing through the often steep terrain with dogs to pick up Alston’s trail.
The “intensive ground search” will continue Wednesday, and an “exhaustive investigative search is happening in the rest of the world outside of that immediate vicinity,” said Kirby Saunders, director of Orange County Emergency Services.
Law enforcement will follow up Wednesday on areas where the search dogs found tracks “for any signs that Mr. Alston may have been there — any footprints, any discarded remains, handcuffs, a tire — anything we can find that can confirm a direction of travel and how he has evaded capture,” Saunders said.
Sheriff’s departments from multiple counties, local police departments, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, N.C. Highway Patrol troopers, and the Department of Adult Correction’s prison emergency response team were brought in to help.
Todd Ishee, secretary of the N.C. Department of Adult Correction , appeared with Blackwood at a news conference Tuesday afternoon but has not elaborated on how Alston managed to get out of his leg restraints and escape.
The Department of Adult Correction is reviewing what happened from the time the van left the prison in Bertie County to the time Alston escaped, including whether the officers may have been involved, he said.
The officers could not use their firearms to stop Alston, Blackwood said, because the guns were still in a lockbox in the van, which is standard procedure when transporting inmates.
$35,000 reward; Durham Tech still locked down
There were a few sightings immediately after Alston fled, Blackwood said Tuesday, but the former Orange County resident remained elusive. 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.
The escape briefly put the UNC Hospital 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 remained on “yellow status” Wednesday, with virtual classes and only essential personnel coming to campus.
People in the area have been advised to keep their doors, vehicles and windows locked.
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 it’s possible he has 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 that has been set up to receive tips in the case at 919-324-1082..
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.
Staff writers Jessica Banov and Korie Dean contributed to this story.
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