March 23, 2024
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Authorities surveilled Tilghman for the past week before catching him at a Planet Fitness gym in Port Richmond.
A manhunt for an escaped West Pennsylvania prisoner ended over 200 miles away on Friday at a Planet Fitness in Philadelphia.
Isaiah Tilghman, 33, escaped Blair County Prison on Dec. 3, 2023. Tilghman was initially arrested last May on drug-related charges and parole violations, and he was awaiting sentencing by the time he escaped. Tilghman used a rope and ventilation shafts to break out, U.S. Marshals say.
Authorities finally closed in on Tilghman on Friday, arresting him at the 3300 block of Aramingo Ave. in Port Richmond around 11 a.m. Marshals had been surveilling him through the week before following him as he drove a black BMW from a home in Kensington.
Once Tilghman exited the Planet Fitness gym, he found himself surrounded by over 20 marshals. Photos from the U.S. Marshals Service show agents restraining Tilghman outside the gym's exterior wall.
Officials will take Tilghman back across the state back to Blair County, where he will face additional charges of escape, flight to avoid apprehension and related charges.
Marshals had known that Tilghman escaped to Philadelphia in the weeks following his escape. Shortly after Tilghman's initial escape, officials found a red Ford F-150 pickup truck that he allegedly stole and used on the 2600 block of South Front St.
"This arrest was a result of Fugitive Task Forces in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, diligently working together, to capture a dangerous escapee," said Robert Clark, supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal for the Eastern Pennsylvania Fugitive Task Force.
"The Marshals Service is unequivocally the best in the business at finding people who do not wish to be found and this arrest reinforces that fact."
