Correction Department detainee escapes from 5th-floor bathroom at Manhattan hospital
A detainee in NYC Department of Correction custody at a Manhattan hospital escaped through a fifth-floor window and was still on the run Wednesday evening, officials said.
Yenchun Chen, 44, had been at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital since last Friday, said Correction Department spokesman Frank Dwyer.
Correction officers allowed Chen to take a shower, said law enforcement sources. When the officers went to check on him, they found a bathroom window was open, and Chen was gone, the sources said.
Police confirmed that Chen had managed to escape from the fifth-floor window.
The hulking detainee, standing at 6-feet-3 tall and weighing about 250 pounds, grabbed a yellow cab on Second Ave. and took off heading downtown, cops said.
Chen has tattoos on his left arm and left hand, according to a description released by police Wednesday evening.
Police were assisting the Correction Department’s effort to locate him, said Dwyer.
The search was reported underway near First Ave. and E. 16th St., where the hospital’s Petrie Division is located.
Chen was originally arrested on a drug possession charge on July 31.
