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Escaped inmate identified; search continues

McAtee

ELKINS — Local law enforcement officials are still searching for a inmate who assaulted an officer at Davis Medical Center and fled in a stolen vehicle early Wednesday morning.

Mark Duwayne McAtee, 22, was being tended to at the hospital about 3 a.m. when he assaulted the officer who accompanied him from the Huttonsville Correctional Center, stole keys to a vehicle and jumped out a second-floor window.

McAtee 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.

The suspect fled in a light blue 2005 Ford Taurus with a license plate number of 4ZC-472. The vehicle was discovered at about 5 a.m. off U.S. 33 near Revelle’s River Resort. The car was left running, with the windshield wipers still on. Officials with several law enforcement agencies, including the DOC, have joined the search around the campground, although officials now believe McAtee has fled the area. A K-9 unit still is in the area assisting officials.

“We no longer believe he is in the area, and they have expanded the search” said Elkins Police Chief C.D. Cross. “We believe he has fled to Harrison County. He had no ties to the area, and think he just abandoned the vehicle and fled.”

McAtee is 5-foot, 10-inches tall with brown hair and brown eyes. He is about 160 pounds and is believed to be wearing a white shirt and black cargo pants. He has a tattoo on his left ankle that reads “left,” a Playboy bunny tattoo on his left hip, a skull and crossbones and a spider web on his right forearm and an unknown tattoo on on the left side of his neck.

Earlier Wednesday, downtown businesses were on lockdown as a precaution, as threats had been made while McAtee was at the hospital.

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

As of 4:30 a.m., members of the Elkins Police Department still were monitoring the entrance of the hospital, with officers stationed outside the emergency room entrance. Elkins PD left the hospital about 7 a.m.

Hospital surveillance footage showed McAtee exited Davis Medical’s parking lot going south toward Corridor H. The vehicle was believed to be low on fuel, scanner traffic indicated. Officials also set up lookouts on U.S. 33 outside of Weston and on Interstate 79 toward Clarksburg.

If you have information about McAtee’s whereabouts, contact the Huttonsville Correctional Center at 304-335-2291.

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