![Christopher Miller, 23, fled the Kips Bay hospital about 3:50 a.m. Saturday. (NYPD) Cops seek Harlem man, 23, who escaped police custody at Bellevue Hospital](https://www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/345-24-escaped-prisoner-13-Pct-02-03-242.jpg?w=579)
A suspect who escaped NYPD custody has been caught — and now the rookie cop who let him “walk out” of Bellevue Hospital is facing discipline, police said Wednesday.
Christopher Miller, 23, vanished after slipping out of the Manhattan hospital barefoot about 3:50 a.m. Saturday. He was rearrested on Monday after he showed up at his probation officer’s office in the Bronx, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
Cops charged him with escape, and he was released without bail Tuesday after pleading not guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court, court documents show.
Kenny said cops asked his probation officer to move up Miller’s scheduled visit and alert him and his family that the date had been changed. “And he showed up,” Kenny said of Miller.
Miller was on probation for a weapons possession conviction, Kenny said. He lives in Harlem.
He was initially taken into custody Friday night after he was involved in a bloody brawl at a McDonald’s on Eighth Ave. near 42nd St. in Midtown, cops said. During the fight, Miller was stabbed in the thigh.
When cops showed up they realized there was a warrant for Miller’s arrest after he didn’t show up in court on a summons he was given and took him into custody.
![Cops seek Harlem man, 23, who escaped police custody at Bellevue Hospital](https://i0.wp.com/www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/345-24-escaped-prisoner-13-Pct-02-03-24-_2.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
A cop who recently graduated from the Police Academy was assigned to watch him at Bellevue, but when a doctor asked the cop to remove Miller’s leg shackles he did so without checking with a supervisor.
When the officer left the room for a moment Miller snuck away, Kenny said.
“He walked out of the back of the ICU,” Kenny said. “[He] walked out the front lobby wearing his pants and no shoes.”
Cops released surveillance footage of Miller leaving the hospital, walking with the assistance of a cane, and asked the public’s help tracking him down.
![New York - August 14, 2019 - Real estate photograph of the Bellevue Hospital Center, founded on 1736 and the oldest public hospital in the United States. Located on First Avenue in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan. Bellevue Hospital is also home to FDNY EMS Station 08, formerly NYC EMS Station 13. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)](https://i0.wp.com/www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/DNFL-LCR14860.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
Police charged Miller with escape after he showed up at the office of his probation officer, cops said. U.S. marshals helped make the arrest.
The rookie officer is expected to be disciplined for not following NYPD protocols for securing prisoners, police officials said.