WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - A psychiatric patient who had been on the run and considered dangerous has now been caught. State Police said 32-year-old Michael Malone escaped Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg early Monday morning.
Malone didn't get very far. Police said he was found around noon Tuesday, four miles from where he escaped.
"It was very nerve-wracking to even know that somebody like that is outside," said Destiny Cole who goes to nursing school nearby. "I wanted to stay inside most times."
Malone, who went by several aliases including Christopher Feagin, was arrested by state and James City County Police outside a Wawa on Richmond Road. Authorities said they got a tip he was inside.
News 3's Antoinette DelBel spoke with the store manager at Wawa. He said he spotted Malone inside, asking people for money. The manager then called police.
Alex Gil, a freshman at William & Mary, said the capture brings a sigh of relief. The college is a couple miles from the hospital.
"It's just one less thing for me to worry about especially with midterms and the stress of that," Gil said. "I was pretty dang nervous. It does make me question the security that was in place at the state institution."
Court records show Malone faces a long list of charges, including three pending charges for having a deadly weapon when he was jailed in Virginia Beach last year. In July of 2022, he was charged with a fourth count for possession of a deadly weapon by a prisoner.
In one instance, court documents show a deputy found a 6-inch shank Malone made from a sharpened piece of chicken bone tied together with toothbrushes.
Police and officials with the psychiatric hospital have not said how Malone was able to escape.
Lauren Cunningham with the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS), which oversees Eastern State Hospital, said they can’t comment on patients, but staff is conducting an internal investigation to assess what happened.
Cunningham sent a statement that read in part:
DBHDS is grateful to the work of the James City County Police Department and the Virginia State Police for safely locating this individual.
Because all DBHDS hospitals provide mental health care, we are bound by state and federal privacy laws and cannot discuss specific individuals under our care. We can confirm Eastern State has begun conducting an internal investigation concerning this incident and how it occurred.
While this was a forensic patient (someone who has come to a state hospital through the criminal justice system), elopements also includes civil patients, which is someone who comes to a state hospital through a court order such as a Temporary Detention Order (TDO). An elopement is defined as the departure of a patient from a psychiatric hospital without permission. While state hospitals work hard to prevent elopements and they are not a frequent occurrence, elopements do occur at most facilities each year. A common example of this might be when a civil patient does not return to a facility while on a day pass. When an elopement happens at a state hospital, staff begins conducting an internal investigation to assess what happened and how safety and security measures at that facility can be improved. This includes internal public safety investigations and quality and risk management investigations.
It is important to remember that psychiatric hospitals are not prisons. Security staff make rounds and are present to ensure patient and staff safety, but it is required to be delivered in as therapeutic a way as possible. Ensuring the safety of the patients and staff at Eastern State and the surrounding community is critically important. We are grateful to all those who worked to bring about a safe outcome in this case.
State Police said Malone was taken into custody near the Wawa without incident. He was transported to the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail and is being processed on a felony warrant for escaping the hospital.
