A man who escaped police custody while under observation at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Cobb County early Thursday morning has been arrested again, police said.
Marietta police officers located the man, identified as 37-year-old Ulysses Andre Roberson, around 2:30 a.m. Friday, department spokesman Officer Chuck McPhilamy said. Through a combination of tips, license plate reading cameras and undercover tactics, McPhilamy said investigators tracked Roberson to a Super 8 motel on Franklin Gateway.
The Austell man was initially taken into custody on drug charges Wednesday after officers found him in possession of “distribution amounts” of crack cocaine, police said in a news release. He was then taken to Kennestone to be treated for two gunshot wounds.
Somehow he managed to break the handcuffs that chained him to his hospital bed, allowing him to slip out of the facility undetected around 1:45 a.m. Thursday, McPhilamy said. Preliminary reports suggested Roberson was seen fleeing in blue hospital scrubs with the handcuffs still attached to his left wrist.
Police are still investigating how Roberson was shot. The night before his escape, officers were tipped off that someone was injured in a shooting outside Marietta city limits and was in the Cobb Parkway area, McPhilamy said.
Investigators believe that person was Roberson, although they did not specify his alleged involvement in the shooting. Police located him in his vehicle in south Marietta after searching the area for more than an hour.
After being spotted, Roberson drove to a nearby apartment complex, where he abandoned his vehicle and ran away, McPhilamy said. Police deployed K-9 officer Jacquo, who tracked Roberson down in some nearby woods. That’s where he was first arrested at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, the news release stated.
In a Friday statement, McPhilamy addressed the social media response to the news of Roberson’s escape that he said pointed blame to the hospital and its staff.
“The responsibility for guarding an inmate falls solely on law enforcement,” McPhilamy said. “We appreciate our ongoing partnership as well as all the assistance we receive from Wellstar staff. This entire incident is being reviewed by the MPD senior command staff to determine exactly what occurred and prevent this from happening again.”
Following his arrest Friday, Roberson was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center and now faces one count of felony escape in addition to his initial narcotics charges.
