Authorities searching in South Carolina for an escaped inmate are investigating whether he is the man who stabbed a Columbia police officer, according to a police statement.
After escaping from the McCormick County Correctional Facility on Wednesday, Michael Alan Williamson is believed to have traveled to Columbia, police said.
Authorities there are working to figure out if Williamson “is the suspect who stabbed a Columbia Police officer” at a local Walmart, the statement said. Investigators have not directly linked Williamson to the officer’s stabbing, but say he is wanted for questioning in connection with that incident.
The female officer was responding to a suspicious person call on Wednesday evening “when she was stabbed multiple times in the upper body,” the police statement, obtained CNN affiliate WACH, said.
The wounded officer is recovering from her injuries.
Williamson was serving a life sentence on a conviction for armed robbery and assault and battery with intent to kill, police said. Columbia is approximately 84 miles east of McCormick.