17-year-old murder suspect Shane Pryor apprehended four days after his escape at CHOP

Police on Sunday night apprehended Shane Pryor, the 17-year-old who escaped from custody while receiving medical attention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, capping off a four-day manhunt that already had resulted in the arrest of an alleged accomplice and renewed scrutiny into the city’s beleaguered jail system.

U.S. Marshals said that agents were conducting surveillance near Third Street and Roosevelt Boulevard around 6:30 p.m. when they spotted the teen boarding a SEPTA bus. Marshals stopped the bus, apprehended Pryor without incident, and transported him to the Philadelphia Police Department’s Homicide Unit.

Supervising Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark said officers also discovered a key piece of evidence during the arrest pat-down: a small, black handcuff key.

Pryor, who was charged with killing a woman in 2020, was taken to the hospital by juvenile detention center staff after a hand injury on Wednesday, when police said he managed to free himself from his shackles and escape on foot.

Pryor had been handcuffed and shackled ahead of his drive from the city’s juvenile detention center, per police policy. How the teen managed to free himself during the roughly 10-minute ride to the University City hospital puzzled investigators and led them to examine whether the escape had been orchestrated — and whether any juvenile center staffers may have helped him.

That investigation remains ongoing. Authorities said that, after arriving at CHOP around noon, Pryor pushed past two unarmed staffers and began weaving in and out of nearby buildings. Clark said Pryor then approached a bystander and, claiming he had been in fight, asked to borrow her phone.

He called his friend Michael Diggs, 18, who acted as his getaway driver, picking him up in a tan Ford Fusion and helping him escape as police blanketed the area, Clark said.

Authorities traced them to the Olney area, where they eventually went separate ways. Clark at the time said Pryor had connections in Mayfair and, citing his three-year stint in custody on murder charges, believed he didn’t have the means to escape the city.

Officials solicited tips and information about the teen’s whereabouts, and Clark said evidence led agents to surveil an area near Hunting Park that Pryor had been frequenting since his escape. After sundown, agents spotted a public transit rider fitting the teen’s description between the Feltonville and Olney neighborhoods.

Police located Diggs on Wednesday, detained him for questioning, and on Friday charged him with hindering a police investigation, escape, criminal conspiracy, and related crimes for his role in the escape.

The two met about a year ago at the Juvenile Justice Services Center, where Diggs had been in custody for attempted murder before a judge tossed the case for lack of evidence. A law enforcement source told The Inquirer last week that the two former cellmates kept in touch in the months leading up to Pryor’s escape.

It remains unclear whether the key found in Pryor’s pocket was used in his escape.

Back in police custody, Pryor awaits trial for his alleged role in the murder of Tanya Harris, 54, a woman who police say Pryor and 15-year-old Kiyan Williams met in an alleyway, paid for sex, and then fatally shot. Pryor told police he was in the alley but did not shoot Harris, according to an affidavit for his arrest. Pryor’s mother has said her son has always maintained his innocence and that they intend to see the case through to trial.

Clark credited a “tremendous” local and federal collaboration for apprehending Pryor within four days.

But Pryor’s escape has nonetheless refocused attention on long-standing institutional troubles within the city’s adult jails and juvenile detention center. The latest episode comes after four people escaped from city prisons within the last year — including a May breakout that led authorities on a weeklong chase for two men, one of whom was charged with four murders, in an incident that prosecutors later blamed on a series of systemic blunders.