Escaped 17-year-old murder suspect captured by U.S. Marshals

Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The Philadelphia Police Department announced that escaped 17-year-old murder suspect Shane Pryor has been recaptured by U.S. Marshals, bringing an end to the five-day manhunt.

Pryor was taken into custody at 3rd and Roosevelt Boulevard in the city on Sunday evening without incident, the Philadelphia Police Department said in a statement, adding that the teenager was being transported to its homicide unit.

Photos published by the U.S. Marshals Service Philadelphia show that Pryor was on a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Bus when recaptured.

"Investigators were conducting surveillance in an area Pryor was known to frequent when Pryor was observed boarding a SEPTA bus," the U.S. Marshals said in a caption to photos published on X.

"@USMS_Philly pulled the bus over and Pryor was arrested without incident."

Authorities had been hunting Pryor since Wednesday when he escaped from police custody while being transported to the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania where he was to be treated for a hand injury.

Police said less than five minutes after escaping at 11:51 a.m., Pryor entered the lobby of the Hub for Clinical Collaboration building at the hospital where he asked and was denied permission by an employee to use their cell phone.

Video of the interaction was published last week by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Minutes later, he asked a civilian on Civic Boulevard to use their phone under the guise of having recently been in a fight and needing to contact someone.

Police said he used that person's phone to contact Michael Diggs, 18, who picked him up at about 12:49 p.m., and they left University City in a cream colored Ford Fusion.

The car was then pulled over at 6:38 p.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of East Logan Street where Diggs was detained, but Pryor was not present.

Diggs has since been charged with hindering apprehension, escape, use of communication facility and criminal conspiracy for his aiding Pryor's escape.

A $5,000 reward was offered to the public for information that would lead to Pryor's re-apprehension.

Police warned that Pryor was considered "dangerous" and though his family argued he was innocent in the shooting death of Tanya Harris in October 2020, for which he was charged, Deputy Marshal Robert Clark said Friday during a press conference that "flight is an indicator of guilt and the longer Pryor stays on the run, the more desperate he becomes."