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North Carolina authorities continued their search on Wednesday for an escaped inmate convicted of killing a one-year-old girl in 2015.
Ramone Jamarr Alston, dubbed the “Christmas Day Killer,” escaped custody from the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction (DAC) at around 7am Tuesday, after managing to break free of leg restraints while being transported to UNC Hospital in Hillsborough to receive medical attention, and running into the nearby woods.
While praising the work of officers on the ground in their “exhaustive search”, DAC Communications Director Keith Acree explained at a 4pm press conference on Wednesday, “at this point we’re pretty certain that Alston is not in the immediate area.”
Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said the search would continue to move northwards as “everything indicates a northern push.”
Alston, 30, was convicted of killing one-year-old Maleah Williams on Christmas Day in 2015.
Children were playing outside near an apartment complex in Chapel Hill when Alston and his friend, Pierre Je Bron Moore, opened fire in a drive-by shooting, according to the young girl’s mother, Tylena, in 2019.
She was already running from the area with Maleah in her arms when she realised her daughter had been hit by a bullet in the back of her head.
The two men took plea deals, Alston receiving a life sentence and Moore 28 to 34 years in prison.
Alston was last seen wearing a gray T-shirt, brown pants and white New Balance tennis shoes according to officials, with handcuffs connected to a waist chain still on his wrists.
They also said it’s “quite likely” he has cut off his dreadlocks since his escape.
The reward being offered for information leading to Alston’s capture is currently $35,000 after the US Marshals Service contributed an additional $10,000.
“He’s extremely cagey, extremely dangerous. And he has nothing to lose,” said Blackwood at the press conference, adding that the reward amount is “a lot of money.”
“Somebody knows out there that this was planned,” he continued. “They know who’s involved in it, and we hope that motivates them to do the right thing and let us know so that we can bring this to a successful conclusion and a just conclusion.”
Blackwood revealed deputies had received calls reporting sightings of Alston but officials could not verify them.
“I cannot put any degree of certainty with any of those,” he said about the sightings in Durham, around 15 miles southeast of Hillsborough, including at a Big Lots store.
The UNC Hospitals Hillsborough Campus went into lockdown following the escape until around 8:30am and increased its security during the incident, according to WTVD reports.
The Durham Technical Community College campus also issued a campus-wide alert that it would be going into lockdown and canceling Tuesday’s classes.
The Sheriff said members of Alston’s family had been contacted, calling their cooperation “varied,” with officials also interviewing the two transport officers tasked with guarding the inmate.
Blackwood went on to reveal he went to high school with Alston’s father, and had known the convicted killer since he was born, calling him a “troubled child” who has been “involved in criminal activity since he was a juvenile.”
People in the area are encouraged to keep doors, vehicles, and windows locked, to call 911 if they spot Alston or see any suspicious activities and to make no attempts to approach him.
