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Escaped inmate captured

McAtee

ELKINS — After a nearly eight-hour search, area law enforcement officers captured an inmate who assaulted a corrections officer and escaped from Davis Medical Center early Wednesday morning.

Mark Duwayne McAtee, 22, was being treated at the hospital for undisclosed reasons when he assaulted an officer from the Huttonsville Correctional Center, stole keys to a vehicle and jumped from a second-story window.

Shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday, McAtee fled in a 2005 Ford Taurus with a license plate number of 4ZC-472. Hospital security footage showed he exited DMC going south toward U.S. 33.

The vehicle was discovered, still running, at about 5 a.m. near Revelle’s River Resort off U.S. 33 near Bowden.

Law enforcement agencies, including multiple K-9 units, from around the area assisted with the search.

McAtee was captured in the campground area at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday by the West Virginia Division of Corrections CERT team and members of the West Virginia State Police.

Earlier Wednesday, downtown businesses were on lockdown as a precaution, as threats had been made while McAtee was at the hospital. Members of the Elkins Police Department stood watch at DMC until about 7 a.m., as a precaution.

McAtee was believed to be armed and dangerous, with what was described in police scanner traffic as a homemade “shiv.”

He was sentenced to 1-15 years for burglary by breaking and entering in Harrison County on July 8, 2013. His intake date at HCC was Oct. 10, 2013, and his projected release date is Aug. 24, 2020, according to the West Virginia Division of Corrections website.

As of late Wednesday, additional charges relating to the escape were expected, officials said.

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