ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. — Rockdale County inmate Timothy Shane, who escaped from Grady Memorial Hospital, was captured after spending over 50 hours on the run.
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Shane was found in an abandoned home off Morris Drive early Wednesday morning, following an extensive search by Covington police and Rockdale County deputies.
Rockdale County Sheriff Eric Levett suspects that Shane’s suicide attempt, which led to his hospitalization, was staged.
Neighbors reported Shane knocking on doors along Ford Street, Thrash Street, and Morris Drive, asking for help and claiming he had been lost in the woods for hours.
Doorbell camera footage captured Shane wearing a different hoodie and soaked pants as he sought assistance from residents.
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Audrey Flournoy, a neighbor, expressed relief at not answering the door, unaware that Shane was considered armed and dangerous.
“He came knocking at the door, and I’m like, who is this?” Flournoy told Channel 2’s Steve Gehlbach. “I had no idea who he was…Glad I didn’t come to the door, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
He walked around her house and ended up one street over, knocking on another door.
“Something said don’t get up, so (I) brushed it off and went back to sleep,” neighbor Eureka Mitchell said.
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An hour or so later, around 7 a.m., Mitchell, who had the front door unlocked, saw police swarm the street and a man on the ground.
“It’s scary, real scary because you never know what could have happened…he could have just walked in the house, you know. We in there asleep and could have come in and killed us,” Mitchell said.
Shane’s first court appearance is expected tomorrow, as investigators continue to unravel the details of his escape and capture.
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