An escaped inmate, his accomplice and members of a white supremacist gang were arrested Thursday afternoon in Twin Falls, Idaho. After a great hunt.
Inmate Skyler Mead escaped from a medical center in Boise early Wednesday morning.
Boise Police Chief Ron Vinegar said at a press conference that the suspects were in the Twin Falls area around 2 p.m. local time Thursday. After a brief vehicle search, the suspects were arrested separately. No shots were fired.
Idaho State Police Lt. Col. Sheldon Kelly said two homicides in the past 24 hours are being investigated as possible suspects. The suspects were found driving a Honda Civic, which police said belonged to one of the victims. The slain victims, both adult men, were found in rural Idaho.
Boise Police Department
Once Umphenour was identified as a suspect, investigators looked into his connections to Mead, state Department of Corrections Director Josh DeWalt said at a Thursday briefing.
Besides being documented members of a white supremacist gang called the Arian Knights, the two occasionally lived in the same housing unit at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, where Umbenor was in custody from December 2020 to January 2024, officials said. They shared common acquaintances both in and out of custody.
DeWalt said the suspects' gang involvement does not mean the escape was a “gang-sanctioned event,” and added that the department is monitoring Aryan Knights in prison to “mitigate the damage that gangs can do.”
“Regardless of their actions, we work hard every day to disrupt any organized crime that takes place in our facilities,” DeWalt said Thursday.
Mead engaged in “self-injurious” behavior Tuesday night, after which authorities determined he needed to be transferred for safety, DeWalt said Wednesday.
Sarah A. Getty Images via Miller/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service
Umbenor attacked and shot two officers at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center around 2:15 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said. A third person, later determined to be a corrections officer, was shot by responding Boise police officers.
One of the injured corrections officers was released from the hospital Wednesday evening, while two other injured officers remain hospitalized, DeWalt said Thursday.
“They are stable, making progress, and I think their spirits have been lifted by today's news,” DeWalt said, calling the incident “a difficult ordeal for the Corrections family.”
