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Mentally Ill 19 Year Old Fatally Shot While Escaping Prison
posted (April 30, 2019)
A mentally ill 19 year old was shot as he tried to escape from the Kolbe Central Prison this morning. A short while after Kevin Moore died of his injuries.

The Punta Gorda teenager was on remand for aggravated assault - admitted to the prison just four weeks ago - and scheduled to re-appear in PG court int he middle of next month.

He was assigned to the low security Tango 6 building - and was on recreation time he made a run for the fence this morning. We went to the prison to find out what happened next - and if it was justified:..

Jules Vasquez reporting
This is where Kevin Moore scaled the prison fence this morning at five minutes to 9:00. And this is the tower from which officers shot him twice after he dashed towards the high bush.

Today, the police scenes of crime team was processing the area because Moore died from his injuries - deliberate shots to both legs.

Virgilio Murillo, CEO - Kolbe Prison
"Apparently he scaled the fence the outer security and climbed over, pushed aside the barb wire that at the top of the fence and he jumped onto the perimeter road nearby and began proceeding towards the high bushes. Thankfully we had a clearance and it allowed the guards who are in the towers to start firing towards him to deter him from continuing with the escape. And eventually it seemed as though he received 2 shots in both legs; the right and the left, somewhere above the knee according to the doctor's report. Once he has been incapacitated which is what we try to do when he capure an escapee, by shooting towards the foot. Then we brought him back to the prison's medic center where an initial assestment was done on him and his wounds were attended to by the medic department. They try to stop the bleeding and those kinds of things and we transferred him immediately to KHMH for further assestment. Then I was told by my guards who took him in that on his arrival at the KHMH he was pronounced dead."

He bled out between the prison and the hoispital - a tragic end for a mentally ill 19 year old charged with aggravated assault.

Virgilio Murillo, CEO - Kolbe Prison
"He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and he was on treatment for that right up until today. that was prescribed by the psychiatrist."

Now, the prison has some answering to do:

Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Sir you have a duty of care for all those in the prison here and the fact of it is a 19 year old is dead."

Virgilio Murillo, CEO - Kolbe Prison
"We are not happy about that. We are very emotional about it. We are sorry and we regret that it has happened, but I guess this is one of the things in every prison. If a prisoner tries to escape from absolutely any prison, there is that possibility. Certainly we are looking at all our protocols including our escape procedures and protocols."

Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Proportionality use of lethal force. The gentleman is on foot. You have many vehicles at your disposal I'm sure. Second, he is not considered I would imagine a high risk inmate being that he was in one of the tango buildings. It's not like he escaped from super max. He was just going to run in the bushes and maybe a few hours later you'll catch him. Should lethal force have been use against such an inmate?"

Virgilio Murillo, CEO - Kolbe Prison
"One of the things I need to say is that during an escape you hardly know immediately who is escaping, so in an escape we don't know. All of this information I shared with you is something we learnt after the fact. So we have no idea from which direction that person has left and remember the purpose of prisons really is to protect society, aside from treating the offender and try to rehabilitate them, it's to protect society, because when you are sent to prison, prisons main responsibility and duty is to ensure that you don't go from here."

Murillo says he is prepared to tell it to the family of the deceased

Virgilio Murillo, CEO - Kolbe Prison
"We have nothing to hide. It was an escape in progress and our job really is to recapture the person, because we do have to protect society. At that particular point in time we were not aware who is escaping, so the prison has to do what it has to do, so whenever they are ready to meet, I am ready to meet too, absolutely. Nothing to hide."

Also not from police who must now conduct a full investigation.

Moore was one of 50 acute psychiatric cases presently being held at the prison.

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