An accused bank robber who authorities said escaped custody at a Virginia hospital, stole a gun and led authorities on a nine-hour manhunt has been captured, according to NBC Washington.
Wossen Assaye was captured in Washington, D.C., after a massive pursuit, a high-ranking police official told NBC Washington. He was taken into custody around 11:30 a.m. ET Tuesday.
Assaye was being treated at Inova Fairfax Hospital before he grabbed a security guard’s gun and fled in his gown and bare feet early Tuesday, authorities said. He later carjacked a woman several miles away, they said.
He overpowered the guard at the hospital at about 3 a.m. ET, NBC Washington reported. A shot was fired during the struggle, but nobody was injured, authorities said.
The carjacking was reported about four hours later in nearby Annandale. Fairfax County police said that the victim identified Assaye and said that he was wearing a hospital gown. They later found the car and said he might have switched to a different one.
Assaye was being held by Alexandria City on federal charges for armed bank robbery, and he had been taken to the hospital after trying to hurt himself, police said.
He has an “extensive criminal record” and a history of violence and poses a “serious risk to the community,” according to a 2012 Virginia parole board document. The document said that he committed robberies and burglaries.
Public records show a rap sheet dating to 1972 for a Wossen Assaye, including a breaking-and-entering charge in 1998 and a purse-snatching conviction in 1994, for which he was given a recommended sentence of a year in jail.
NBC News' Jason Cumming, Alexander Smith and Christopher Nelson contributed to this report.
