Escaped Idaho inmate and accomplice captured; suspected of killing two in North Idaho

A white supremacist prison escapee and his accomplice suspected of coordinating a violent ambush outside a Boise hospital may be connected to two killings in North Idaho after police found prison shackles at the scene.

The Boise Police Department announced 31-year-old Aryan Knights member Skylar Meade, an Idaho Maximum Security Institution inmate, and his “associate,” 28-year-old Nicholas Umphenour, were captured Thursday afternoon in Twin Falls after being on the run for 36 hours following a shooting outside a Boise hospital that left three Idaho corrections officers wounded.

Idaho State Police Lt. Col. Sheldon Kelley said during a news conference Thursday, just hours after Meade and Umphenour were caught, that police believe two homicides in Clearwater and Nez Perce counties “are potentially tied to this incident.”

Each killing took place within the previous 24 hours. Both victims are adult men found in “rural Idaho” who have not been identified, Kelley said.

“We did find shackles at one of the scenes,” Kelley said. “That’s one of the ways we tied them together.”

According to the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office, detectives responded to a welfare check around 8 p.m. Wednesday and found one of the homicide victims.

The Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the homicide in its jurisdiction.

If the suspicions hold, Meade and Umphenour may have driven 700 miles or more between the escape from Boise to the homicide sites, and then back to Twin Falls where they were arrested.

The mayhem began early Wednesday morning when correctional officers transported Meade to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center for self-inflicted wounds. While in the process of taking him back to prison, Umphenour appeared in the hospital’s ambulance bay and shot at the officers, injuring two of them, according to Boise police.

Boise police responded and shot and injured a corrections officer by mistake. One officer has since been released from the hospital, and the others are in stable condition as of Thursday afternoon, Idaho Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt said. More specifics on their conditions weren’t available. No Saint Alphonsus employees were injured.

The two suspects fled the scene in a gray Honda Civic that prompted a statewide manhunt. Alerts were sent to residents’ cell phones across the state. Dozens of tips flooded in to the Boise Police Department.

Kelley said the Honda Civic the two men used to escape was ditched in Nez Perce County and another car was used to travel to Twin Falls. Police captured the men after a brief pursuit with no use of deadly force, Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar told reporters. He called the shooting at the hospital “a coordinated attack” meant to free Meade from prison.

John Wright, a Twin Falls resident, said he was driving through an intersection Thursday when a car and a pickup ran a stop sign in front of him “without hesitation.”

Sirens started blaring, and multiple police cars sped through following the cars, Wright said. Based on the streets, he thought the pursuit would end at a local pharmacy – and he was right.

The pickup came “barreling down the alleyway” close by, Wright said, and police rammed the rear of the pickup to spin it around and stop it.

“The guy in the passenger seat was standing out with his hands up,” he said. “Police came from everywhere, then. They all had rifles out.”

Wright said police also pulled a blonde woman out of the pickup and led her away. As he pulled up further, he could see police were detaining “a bald man on the ground.”

Meade is a known member of the Aryan Knights, a white supremacist prison gang formed in Idaho in the 1990s. He has ties to the Twin Falls area, where he was found guilty for shooting at a law enforcement officer, court records show. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 and is considered a “high risk” inmate.

Court records show Umphenour also has multiple charges and convictions for assault and battery in Clearwater and Nez Perce counties.

The capture was successful because of the amount of leads and tips that came in, according to Idaho State Police. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Ada County Sheriff’s Office at (208) 377-6790.