UPDATE: Prisoner Attacks Guard, Escapes in Cartersville

A prisoner who escaped from a transport van late Wednesday evening in Cartersville is still on the run.

Officers with the Cartersville Police Department are still looking for Sean Patrick Killion, 42, who was aboard a private prisoner transport bus parked outside Pizza Hut at 122 Merchants Square Drive when he attacked a female guard and managed to get away.

Cartersville Police Department spokesperson Major Mark Camp said Killion was with four guards at the time of the escape. He was being transported by a private transport company from Florida to Indiana, he added.

According to an incident report released by the agency Thursday morning, an officer was dispatched around 8 p.m. Jan. 4 to Cartersville Medical Center and interviewed the female guard who was allegedly attacked by the prisoner.

The guard said she was helping transport “several” inmates from Florida to Indiana aboard when the van stopped at Pizza Hunt “to get food for the prisoners and have a bathroom break.” When they opened the back door of the van, she was allegedly “bum rushed by a prisoner,” the report states.

“The prisoner then ran off attempting to get in a white truck that was parked and running in the parking lot, but the truck was locked,” according to the report.

The guard said she followed the prisoner around the building and across East Felton Road “where she was able to get her hands on him.”

“When she grabbed him, he then pulled and push her to the ground,” the officer wrote. The guard said when she fell, she heard a ”pop” in her right knee and was unable to walk on it.

She added the prisoner, who was reportedly shackled along his feet and handcuffed to his waist, was seen jumping a fence headed towards U.S. 41/Joe Frank Harris Parkway. She noted she was “100 percent sure” Killion was shackled when he allegedly launched his attack.

Camp, who said Killion has a history of escaping from custody, was wearing faded blue jeans and a black shirt at the time of his escape. He is described as a white man who stands around 6’1’’ tall and weighs about 195 pounds.

There were initial reports that stated Killion was a federal prisoner, but that was not the case, said Jim Joyner, a spokesperson with the U.S. Marshals Service’s office in Atlanta.

Killion was wanted by the Indiana Department of Correction on parole violation charges, and the federal agency did assist in locating and arresting him in Florida, Joyner stated.

Once he was arrested, he was turned over to the custody of Indiana, who arranged for a private company to transport the prisoner back to their state, Joyner stated.

Joyner added U.S. Marshals Service agents, along with the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office, did initially assist in the search of Killion Wednesday evening. However, the search is now being handled by the Cartersville Police Department.

As of 7 a.m. Thursday, the Cartersville police were still searching for Killion.

“We do not know if he is still in the Cartersville area or not,” Camp added.

Photo: Sean Patrick Killion. Credit: Cartersville Police Department/Indiana Department of Corrections