The Latest: Patient escapes from psychiatric hospital

SEATTLE – The Latest on the escape and recapture of a patient from Washington’s largest psychiatric hospital (all times local):

4:47 p.m.

Police say a patient who was with a group being escorted by staff at Washington’s largest psychiatric hospital escaped for a period of time on Monday.

Lakewood Police Lt. Chris Lawlor says the patient went missing from Western State Hospital at about 1:45 p.m. The 31-year-old male patient was with a group of about eight patients.

Hospital staff discovered that the patient was missing when they reached their destination.

Hospital security began a search and he was taken into custody at about 3:05 p.m. and returned to the hospital.

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4:01 p.m.

A patient escaped from Washington’s largest psychiatric hospital, but was quickly captured.

Lt. Chris Lawler with the Lakewood Police Department says the patient got out of Western State Hospital for a brief period of time Monday but was back in custody soon after.

Lawler did not immediately have details about what happened but said he would release more information when it becomes available.

Monday’s escape follows the April 6 escape of two dangerous patients. One was caught the next morning and the other made it to Spokane and was on the run for two days before being caught.

An investigation by The Associated Press found that there have been 185 escapes or walk-aways from the 800-bed psychiatric hospital since 2013.