As of yesterday afternoon, prisoner Yenchun Chen is still on the run after evading police by rappelling out of the window and down the side of the Manhattan hospital last week.
Chen, 44, is 6’3”, weighs approximately 250 lbs, and is described by police as a brown-eyed, black-haired man with tattoos on his left arm and hand. Chen had been in police custody since July 31st for the criminal possession of a controlled substance. On August 4th, he was hospitalized for a cardiac problem while still under arrest and brought to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Gramercy Park. On the 9th of August, while Chen was still technically hospitalized, he made a break for it while he was expected to be showering.
From his room on the fifth floor of the hospital, Chen exited out the window and scaled down a rope made of knotted bedsheets to a ladder, from which he was able to climb down to street level. The escape came as a shock to police, they were certainly not expecting the prisoner to scale the building, especially given Chen’s atypical size.
Once he reached the street, Chen allegedly hailed a cab and left Manhattan. Police tracked his whereabouts to New Jersey the day after his escape and searched multiple locations. Chen is still no where to be found and on the run from police. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline.