Escaped Illinois killer Kamron Taylor still on the run

KANKAKEE, Ill. -- Escaped inmate Kamron Taylor, 23, remains on the loose after overpowering a guard at the Kankakee County Jail. The convicted killer is considered armed and dangerous. A $5,000 reward is offered for information leading to his arrest.

Taylor, who is awaiting sentencing on a murder conviction, overpowered a correctional guard at the Jerome Combs Detention Center around 3 a.m. Wednesday. Described as a black man, 5'9" and 170 pounds, he was last known to be wearing the guard's uniform.

Officials say Taylor somehow got out of his cell and hid. Video shows Taylor jumping the guard and beating him, officials said.

"As he was walking in the unit, he was hit from the side. An attempt was made to choke him and then he was beaten and we believe knocked unconscious," Kankakee County Sheriff Tim Bukowski said. Bukowski said there is video of the attack.

"We still don't know how it came to be that he was not locked in his cell," Bukowski said. "We are reviewing videotape inside the facility, and we will break that down to see how he got out of the cell and avoided the headcounts."

Officials are questioning Taylor's cell mate, Bukowski said, and others who are held in that area of the center.

The correctional guard was found unconscious in the cell's shower when he did not respond to radio calls, Bukowski said. That guard is hospitalized in intensive care and undergoing tests; his condition has not been released.

Taylor escaped wearing the guard's uniform around 3 a.m. To get out of the facility, Taylor passed through three doors, one of which required a visual inspection by camera. Both men are black and have "pretty close" builds, Bukowski said.

"There are very few people moving at that time in the morning. The officers at master control did not detect anything out of the normal for them, so they went ahead and let him out," Bukowski said.

He fled in the guard's vehicle, a 2012 Chevrolet Equinox with Illinois license plate P506660. That vehicle was found parked in the 1200 block of Lincoln Avenue in Kankakee around 8:30 a.m.

Local law enforcement agencies, including those with canines, are helping in the hunt for Taylor. The U.S. Marshals Service's Fugitive Task Force is also involved.

"We are in search mode," Chief Deputy Ken McCabe said.

A woman who lives near where the stolen vehicle was parked was escorted from her home by police "for her own safety," according to a neighbor. Officials also searched two vacant homes on the block.

Most schools in Kankakee County are on spring break this week, but the sheriff's office advised any schools that may be in session to go on soft lockdown, which means keeping children in class and not letting visitors inside the building, on Wednesday.

Illinois State Police issued an alert for a 15-year-old Kankakee girl who was reported missing around the same time as Taylor's escape. She was found, and officials said they do not believe she had anything to do with the situation.

HISTORY OF ESCAPE

Taylor is the first to escape from the facility since it opened in 2005, Bukowski said, but there have been other failed attempts.

These aren't "altar boys," Bukowski said of the inmates. "That's why you have the number of checks that we do have. Now the question for us is: Where did it break down?"

During Taylor's trial in February, he tried to escape from the courthouse minutes after hearing the guilty verdict. Several sheriff's deputies and bailiffs wrestled him to the ground, and Taylor shouted expletives at the gallery as they led him away, according to a report in The (Kankakee) Daily Journal.

He also escaped briefly after his arrest in 2013 but was detained several blocks away, the newspaper reported at the time.

Taylor was found guilty of first-degree murder for the June 2013 slaying of 21-year-old Nelson Williams Jr. during a botched robbery at Williams' home in Kankakee. He faces a sentence of 45 years to life.

Williams was shot in the head on his front porch during a scuffle with a man demanding money. A 911 recording capturing the sound of the single gunshot was played for jurors.