CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
Prisoner ‘Bolts’ cops
An NYPD prisoner briefly escaped from custody at a Bronx hospital Friday when he blew away officers in a footrace to freedom, police sources told The Post.
“This guy was running like [Olympic gold-medal sprinter] Usain Bolt, and they were running like Oprah Winfrey. It was embarrassing,” said one source.
Kevin Taylor, 27, was in custody at St. Barnabas Hospital at about 6:40 a.m. when he created a diversion and made his rapid escape, according to police.
The suspect, who escaped with handcuffs still locked onto one of his wrists, had been taken to the hospital for an undisclosed injury after an arrest for weapons and drug-possession charges on Wednesday.
While in the hospital room, the criminal managed to get free from the bed and then hurled a bottle filled with an unknown liquid at an officer to create a distraction.
Taylor then darted out of the hospital and fled in an unknown direction. One NYPD cop and hospital security officers gave chase, but the suspect was too fast, observers said.
“A person with that kind of criminal past should have been leg-shackled,” a source said.
Surveillance footage taken from a bodega near St. Barnabas shows the escaped prisoner fleeing the scene and heading west into parts unknown.
Police K-9 teams sniffed the area around the hospital for traces of the escaped prisoner.
Taylor has been arrested 40 times before and has 18 sealed adjudications, cops said.
He is on parole on a 2016 conviction for criminal possession of a firearm and a charge of first-degree attempted promotion of prison contraband, records show.
The speedster suspect was collared at about 7:30 p.m. Friday in The Bronx, officials said.
Cops didn’t immediately reveal other details about his 13 hours of freedom.