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Home invasion suspect arrested in Burlington after escaping from Chapel Hill hospital

The home invasion suspect who escaped from a Chapel Hill hospital with a machete wound he got from a boy during the invasion was arrested in Burlington on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Posted Updated

By
Deborah Strange
, WRAL digital journalist
BURLINGTON, N.C. — The home invasion suspect who escaped from a Chapel Hill hospital with a machete wound he got from a boy during the invasion was arrested in Burlington on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Burlington police said officers arrested Jataveon Dashawn Hall, 19, at his mother's apartment around 1:15 p.m. without incident.

Police said investigators got an anonymous tip about Hall's whereabouts and said Hall was calm during the arrest.

Hall was transferred to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, which had charged him in a Mebane home invasion on Friday morning.

He was held in the county jail on a $100,000 bond.

During the invasion, an 11-year-old boy home alone was forced into a closet at gunpoint but escaped. The boy hit the intruder in the back of the head with a machete.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said Hall was stealing electronics when the boy hit him.

A fight between the intruder and the boy ensued, but the intruder fled when he realized he was bleeding from the machete blow.

Hall was charged with breaking and entering, kidnapping, assault on a child younger than 12 and interfering with emergency communications.

Jataveon Dashawn Hall

He arrived at the emergency department at UNC Hospital in Hillsborough on Friday around 1 p.m. seeking treatment for a head injury. He matched the description of the intruder that the boy gave to authorities earlier that day.

According to officials, Hall walked into the hospital by himself, and deputies were notified.

"He remained nearby in public areas until investigators arrived, but at this point, Hall was only a suspect and there was no legal authority to hold him in custody," Orange County officials said Sunday.

Orange County spokeswoman Alicia Stemper said Hall was transferred to UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill because of the severity of his injury. Hospital police were asked to call the Orange County Sheriff's Office before discharging Hall so he could be taken into custody, Stemper said.

Shortly before 8 p.m. Friday, a nurse entered Hall’s hospital room and found his bed empty. Hall had told the nurse he needed to leave because the police were going to be looking for him, Stemper said.

Surveillance video showed Hall leaving the hospital in a hospital gown.

“Our agency is very concerned about the events in this case," said Chief Deputy Jamison Sykes. "Effective immediately, we will institute policy changes necessary to protect the public in situations like this. We expected to be notified prior to Hall’s discharge. When Hall left the hospital Friday evening against medical advice, we certainly should have been notified. But most concerning of all is that hospital police did not even know Hall had left the premises almost ten hours prior...Hall’s absence was only discovered when we placed a phone call to them.”

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