A murder suspect, Christopher Haynes, escaped custody at George Washington University Hospital, triggering a shelter-in-place order for the campus.
A tense situation unfolded in Washington, D.C., as a murder suspect, 31-year-old Christopher Haynes, managed to escape custody at George Washington University Hospital on a Wednesday afternoon. The incident prompted authorities to issue a shelter-in-place order for the university campus and led to a massive manhunt in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
Haynes’s escape occurred at approximately 3:38 p.m., leaving law enforcement scrambling to locate the dangerous individual. D.C. police quickly identified Haynes as a Black man with distinctive shoulder-length dreadlocks. He was last seen wearing a white suit with one red shoe. Notably, Haynes was not handcuffed when he escaped.
The urgency of the situation was underscored by the D.C. police’s warning: “Do not engage, call 911 if spotted.” The gravity of the escape also prompted George Washington University’s student alert system to activate, instructing members of the campus community to shelter in place due to the presence of the escaped murder suspect nearby.
As the news spread, a palpable sense of concern gripped the university and its vicinity. The GW Hatchet, an independent student newspaper at George Washington University, described the escaped individual as “dangerous.” The campus witnessed a significant influx of law enforcement personnel, and a helicopter was deployed to search for Haynes in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
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According to official reports, Haynes left the hospital, located on the 900 block of 23rd Street Northwest, just after 3:30 p.m. An alert distributed among the GWU community instructed individuals to be on the lookout for a “black male with long dreads, wearing a jumpsuit and red shoes.” D.C. police released an image of Haynes to aid in his identification and urged the public to refrain from any attempts to engage with him. Instead, they emphasized the importance of immediately contacting 911 if Haynes is spotted.
