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Suspected North Carolina burglar caught
after being fought off by boy with machete
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 [June 17, 2019]
(Reuters) - North Carolina police
arrested a suspected burglar on Sunday who was fought off by an
11-year-old boy with a machete and sought treatment at a hospital for a
head wound, but managed to flee before police could arrest him.
Jataveon Dashawn Hall, 19, is accused of breaking into a home in
Hillsborough on Friday and forcing the boy into a closet while he
gathered the family's electronics, according to a statement by the
Orange County Sheriff's Office.
After the boy hit Hall in the head with a machete, Hall sought treatment
at the UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, where workers who had been
asked to look out for a man with a head wound notified sheriff's
deputies, including an officer who was eating lunch at the center.
The sheriff's office said its officers, who did not have the required
warrants to arrest Hall at that point, discovered Hall was missing from
the hospital on Saturday morning.
He was seen on surveillance video leaving dressed in a hospital gown and
blue socks, with his head bandaged, the sheriff's office said.
"When Hall left the hospital Friday evening against medical advice, we
certainly should have been notified," the statement said. "But most
concerning of all is that hospital police did not even know Hall had
left the premises almost ten hours prior."
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UNC Health Care, which runs the hospital, released a statement
saying they "did not intend to debate this issue" with the sheriff's
staff.
"However, we believe this situation highlights the issue that
emergency department nurses and physicians cannot be both caregivers
and law enforcement at the same time," it said.
Police finally detained Hall on Sunday after receiving a tip that he
was at his mother's apartment in the nearby city of Burlington.
Hall was wanted on charges of breaking and entering, kidnapping and
assaulting a child and is due to make his first court appearance in
Hillsborough on Monday.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Sonya
Hepinstall)
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