Escaped killer David Sweat being treated at Albany Medical Center
“Convoy of police accompanied his ambulance to the hospital Sunday night”
An ambulance transporting prison escapee David Sweat arrives at Albany Medical Center on Sunday, June 28, 2015, in Albany, N.Y. Sweat was shot earlier in the day by a law enforcement officer near the Canadian border, reports timesunion.
David Sweat arrived Sunday night at Albany Medical Center Hospital, where he was undergoing emergency treatment for two gunshot wounds that ended his flight from authorities.
Dr. Dennis McKenna of Albany Med said Sweat, 35, was in critical condition. His injuries were being evaluated late in the evening.
If he recovers, Sweat will be held in the hospital’s secure ward and remain handcuffed to a hospital bed under constant watch by state prison guards.
The hospital was under “lockdown” Sunday night in anticipation of the arrival of the escaped killer, who was shot by a state trooper and apprehended near the Canadian border.
A convoy of State Police accompanied the ambulance carrying Sweat to Albany Med Sunday night. People who gathered on the street near the hospital cheered and clapped as the emergency vehicles passed by on New Scotland Avenue.
A few moments after the convoy of emergency vehicles passed by, a person in the crowd quipped: “Elvis has left the building.”
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision oversees the hospital’s secure ward.
Prisoners are not kept in cells, but are handcuffed and shackled to hospital beds. The ward is behind a locked door that is guarded.
State correction officers constantly staff the special unit, which holds about 8 to 10 inmates on an average day, McKenna said.
When local sheriff’s departments send their own prisoners for care at Albany Med they also send guards to help watch those prisoners.
“They are going to have an army of state COs there tonight,” Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said Sunday evening.
If Sweat recovers from his injuries, he’ll be returned to the state prison system. But it’s unlikely he’ll ever be returned to Clinton Correctional Facility.