Escaped prisoner Shane Pryor has been apprehended, police say

Teen prisoner Shane Pryor was apprehended Sunday night after his escape from a local hospital prompted a multi-day search. 

Pryor, 17, was arrested on a SEPTA bus at 3rd Street and the Roosevelt Boulevard by members of the U.S. Marshals Eastern Pennsylvania Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force. Pryor, who was wanted for a 2020 murder, escaped from authorities outside the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) on Wednesday. Michael Diggs, 18, was arrested Friday for allegedly helping Pryor escape by picking him up near the hospital. 

Investigators said they learned Sunday morning that Pryor was frequenting the Hunting Park neighborhood following his escape. At 6:30 p.m., Pryor was seen boarding a SEPTA bus at 9th Street and the Roosevelt Boulevard. Marshals and task force officers caught up with the bus and boarded it at 3rd Street, quickly identifying Pryor. He was arrested without incident, police say. 

A black handcuff key was found in Pryor’s pocket during his arrest and secured by detectives. Reports from last week said that Pryor was not wearing handcuffs at the time of his escape. 

“To bring Shane Pryor into custody four days after escaping, is a result of tremendous collaboration between the U.S. Marshals Service and the Philadelphia Homicide Unit,” said Robert Clark, supervisory deputy marshal, in a statement. 

Pryor escaped around noon on Wednesday after he was transported to CHOP from the Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center for a hand injury. He ran from escort staff after getting out a transport car in the emergency room parking lot near 34th and Spruce streets before heading inside. Surveillance video released on Thursday shows him asking a receptionist in CHOP’s Hub for Clinical Collaboration to use the phone. She denied his request and Pryor left, later borrowing a phone from a woman on Civic Center Boulevard to call Diggs. 

Pryor has been charged with shooting and killing a woman in a Holmesburg alleyway in 2020 and has been in custody since then, though he maintains his innocence. He was 14 at the time but is charged as an adult. In December, a judge denied his request to return the case to the juvenile court. This may have influenced his decision to escape, his attorney Paul DiMaio said.