OMAHA, Neb. -- Douglas County Corrections officials are still looking for an escaped inmate who, they confirmed Monday, threatened officers with a bar of soap shaped to look like a gun.
OMAHA, Neb. -- Douglas County Corrections officials are still looking for an escaped inmate who, they confirmed Monday, threatened officers with a bar of soap shaped to look like a gun.
The escape happened just blocks from the jail. Raymond Thomas, 20, pulled out what officers thought was a weapon and forced officers to stop the vehicle in which he was being transported. It happened on Leavenworth Street between University of Nebraska Medical Center and the correction center.
Officials said Thomas was taken to the hospital because he was spitting up blood, but it now appears that ailment was staged. They said Thomas knew when to fake his illness. At that specific time of the day, there was no doctor on duty at the jail, and that's why officials had to take him to the hospital.
The officers transporting Thomas were not armed. Thomas forced them to get out of the vehicle and then drove off in it.
"(He) had the handmade weapon pressed against the officers skull and said that he was going to pull the trigger and kill the officer if he didn't stop the vehicle," jail director Robert Patton said.
Patton said the investigation shows that Thomas then threw the "weapon" out the window. It was a carved bar of soap.
"Carved the bottom section out, around, in black ink, took the barrel from the pen, and it appeared like the slide at the weapon. Crude, but likely effective in the dark," Patton said.
Corrections officials said they are still investigating how Thomas manufactured and was able to hide the bar of soap.
The vehicle was found near 18th and Locust streets and in it, officers found the orange inmate jumpsuit that Thomas was last seen wearing.
While the search continues, Patton said, the investigation continues into how this could've happened.
"I wouldn't use the word embarrassed. The officers performed admirably, so I'm proud of them," Patton said.
Thomas was in jail on charges of an attempted robbery in December. Thomas and another man were stopped at the Louis Market on Northwest Radial Highway before they could get away after they walked into the store wearing ski masks and the manager called police. The men were still in the store when police and sheriff's deputies arrived. Police said they found evidence on the men that suggested they were about to rob the store.
Thomas' family members told KETV NewsWatch 7 on Monday that they want him to turn himself in, but they don't believe he is dangerous. Patton said he considers Thomas dangerous, but he doesn't want the public to panic.
"Do I think he's dangerous enough he'd go out in a blaze of glory? His criminal record doesn't indicate that," Patton said.
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