‘Shot dead by his own hostage’ – Fugitive murder suspect gunned down while holding family hostage
‘Shot dead by his own hostage’ – Fugitive murder suspect gunned down while holding family hostage
A capital murder suspect who escaped from a Mississippi jail last week has been shot dead by one of the people he had taken hostage, reports claim.
Rafael McCloud, 33, escaped from the Warren County jail in Vicksburg last Wednesday after attacking a jail guard with a shank and donning his uniform.
A week later, at 4.30am on Thursday, he broke into a family’s home and took a man, woman and child hostage.
But at around 7am, the man managed to find a gun and shoot McCloud dead in their bathtub, police told the Vicksburg Post.
The husband, who has not been identified, was taken to Merit Health River Region Medical Center with non-life-threatening stab wounds as police removed the body from the home in the Fort Hill neighborhood.
His wife was hit in the head but was not injured and did not need treatment,’ police said.
‘This is certainly not how we wanted this to end,’ Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said, according to the Post.
‘Our goal was to take him back into custody and have him stand before a jury in Warren County. But he brought this upon himself.
‘We are incredibly relieved this family was not seriously injured and they were able to protect themselves this morning,’ Pace said.
McCloud broke in when the husband left the door open as he went to start his wife’s car.
According to the Post, the couple fought McCloud but he eventually overpowered them and tied them up.
Almost three hours later, the husband managed to break free from the rope, find a gun, and shoot McCloud who was in the bathroom. His body was found in the bathtub.
‘It’s been a long week for this community and we appreciate the cooperation of the public as we have pursued this community.’
He added that police believe McCloud had help evading authorities during his week at large.
‘He had on tennis shoes; nice, white tennis shoes and a pair of blue jeans, so there is some indication someone has been helping him or he stole those items. But the shoes looked to be the exact size he wears,’ Pace said.
The home was at the center of the police search, but McCloud had eluded officers until he was shot.
He had been in jail since January, charged with the kidnap, rape and murder of Sharon Wilson, 69, whose badly beaten body was found dumped in an abandoned hospital last year.
But on March 2, he escaped his cell by taking a jail guard hostage with a homemade shank – a crude knife made from a piece of metal – and forcing the jailer to give him his clothes.
According to Pace, McCloud ‘forced the guard to disrobe and then put on his clothes’ then ‘held the shank against the guard’ as they went downstairs before McCloud left through a side door.
He said that McCloud also took a radio and keys. Both items were recovered later in the grounds of the jail, as were McCloud’s orange jail shoes.
Dozens of officers, including the department’s K-9 officer Thor, were involved in the search, along with multiple units from the county sheriff’s department.
During the search, police issued a warning to locals, saying McCloud was ‘armed and desperate and extremely dangerous’.
Schools in western Mississippi were locked down as authorities searched on foot and in helicopters.
Initially, police were concentrating the search along Martin Luther King Boulevard, about a half mile northeast of the jail and around the area where McCloud once lived.
McCloud was being held for the kidnapping and slaying of 69-year-old Sharon Wilson, who police say was badly beaten and raped before her death last June.
Her body was dumped at Kuhn Memorial Hospital, an abandoned hospital building.
She was found by ghost hunters who told police they noticed a trail of blood, according to WLBT.
He faced charges for capital murder, sexual battery, rape, arson, home invasion, weapon possession by felon, grand larceny auto theft and burglary, according to court records.
