Guard Shot as Inmate Escapes Hospital in Fairfax

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) - Police in northern Virginia say one shot was fired as a guard wrestled with a prisoner, who then fled a hospital with a gun setting off a lockdown and search.
 
Fairfax County Police Chief Ed Roessler says one shot was fired during the struggle around 3 a.m. Tuesday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church.
 
Roessler says the prisoner, identified as Wossen Assaye, was last seen wearing a hospital gown near the room where he was being held. Roessler says Assaye was being held on federal bank robbery charges involving a suspect who fled on a bicycle.
 
He says in Fairfax County police custody, a prisoner would typically be handcuffed, but he didn't know what federal procedures are. He says police have searched the hospital and will keep searching.