PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — U.S. Marshals aiding Philadelphia police in the search for Alleem Borden, the 29-year-old man who escaped custody earlier this week, spotted him in West Philadelphia on Tuesday — but they say he jumped down an embankment and disappeared along a set of SEPTA tracks.
Borden was arrested Sunday morning in Fishtown. Police said he was sleeping in a car he stole from a delivery driver a few days earlier.
While in custody, he complained of pain, so officers took him to Temple University Hospital’s Episcopal Campus in Kensington early Monday morning. As officers walked him, handcuffed, back to the car, he broke free and outran them.
Surveillance video from around 7:15 a.m. Monday shows Borden walking out the front doorway of a Kensington property on Hope Street, not far from the hospital where he escaped police custody. He is still handcuffed. Another man is seen opening a passenger-side door on a gold Honda parked at the curb, and Borden gets into the car.
Jan. 26, 7:11 a.m.: Hope Street, Kensington
On Tuesday, around 3:15 p.m., investigators encountered Borden at an address in West Philadelphia he was known to frequent, said Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark.
This time, investigators say, Borden was free of the handcuffs.
“Approximately 10 Marshals Service personnel approached the Columbia Avenue residence and knocked and announced their presence,” Clark said. “Immediately after knocking, a male matching Borden's description sprinted out of the back of the residence and jumped down a 30-foot embankment, onto the SEPTA train tracks.”
Clark said it wasn’t safe to pursue him.
“We had investigators there, but it wasn't worth their safety to jump down that embankment. He's a desperate man, so I clearly see why he tried to escape and jump down into the train tracks, but it just wasn't worth the safety of any of my officers to take that jump and try to pursue him.”
Since that time, Clark said, there have been no further confirmed sightings of the escapee. Investigators say they hope a $2,500 reward will draw out tips from the public leading to Borden's arrest.
“Just to be so close yesterday is heartbreaking — that we weren't able to get him. But you have to remember, that residence was just a place he was known to frequent, that he was spotted at before.”
In addition to drug, gun and car theft offenses on his record, Borden is known to have escaped police custody once before, after an arrest on an assault charge in Cambria County.
U.S. Marshals consider Borden “possibly armed, dangerous, and undoubtedly desperate.”
“He has history of fleeing, eluding. He's been arrested for escape before. He has aggravated assault in his history, and he should be treated with the utmost caution,” Clark said.
Borden is the second person to escape Philadelphia police custody on hospital grounds in a month’s time. In January, 17-year-old Shane Pryor slipped away from police after he was transferred to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for a hand injury, sparking a five-day manhunt.