PHILADELPHIA. — A teenager awaiting trial in a homicide case who escaped outside a Philadelphia hospital this week was spotted on video getting into a vehicle that drove him away less than an hour after he fled on foot, authorities said.
U.S. marshals and city police continued to search Thursday for 17-year-old Shane Pryor, who is considered dangerous. Authorities have said he fled just before noon Wednesday from a vehicle in the driveway of the emergency room at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he had been taken with a hand injury.
Security video shows Pryor was able to go in and out of a few buildings in the area, said Deputy Commissioner of Investigations Frank Vanore. He also was seen talking to people, “asking for a phone … whatever he could do to leave the area,” he said.
Investigators believe he called an accomplice within an hour of escaping, who then picked him up in a car. Police stopped the vehicle in the city on Wednesday night, Vanore said, but Pryor was not in the car. Two people who were in the vehicle were being questioned by police, but no charges had been filed against either person as of Thursday.
Police had searched the buildings Wednesday and used dogs to search large parking garages, but no lockdowns had been imposed, he said. Police said Pryor should be considered dangerous, warning people not to approach him and to call 911. Officers also checked the homes of his relatives in other parts of the city, Vanore said.
Pryor was 14 when he was charged in an October 2020 homicide and has been in a juvenile facility ever since. He faces charges including murder, conspiracy and firearms crimes. He was described as 5 feet 7 inches tall and 180 pounds and was wearing a blue sweatsuit and sandal-type footwear with socks.
Pryor’s mother has urged her son to turn himself in. She told The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday that the teen had fled custody because he turns 18 in two weeks, opening him to being transferred to an adult prison.
