(KETCHIKAN, Alaska)-- A fleeing inmate trying to escape from prison was shot dead by a guards Sunday after he climbed over fences, Alaska State Police reported.
The prisoner was identified as John Neil Henry Ebling, 38, who was convicted of robbery and attempted murder in 1999 following a shootout with police.
Greg Wilkinson, a spokesman for the State Police, told reporters that as Ebling was trying to escape Ketchikan Correctional Facility, guards in a tower spotted him and warned him to stop. Ebling didn’t.
“The tower guard fires and hits him,” Wilkinson told the Associated Press. Ebling was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The incident began at about 2 p.m. after Ebling, who was in a prison yard with fellow inmates, tried to climb two fences and escaped from a recreation yard. Guards first fired rubber bullets to stop him and later used live ammunition, Wilkinson told reporters.
Guards yelled for him to stop and fired the rubber bullets. After Ebling cleared the first fence, guards began firing live rounds, troopers said. Ebling continued over the second fence.
Ebling had been involved in a gun battle with police at a motel in 1999 during which he fired a flare gun at troopers.