A Seattle convict with a prolific rap sheet was arrested in a dumpster Thursday afternoon after fleeing a hospital room in nothing but his birthday suit while attempting to evade police.
Billy Chambers, 29, was injured following a shootout and multiple vehicle crash in Seattle on Thursday afternoon, Fox13 reported. Chambers was taken to the hospital, where he provided police with a fake name and asked for a lawyer, The King County Prosecutor’s Office told the media. He then ran.
Authorities discovered that Chambers had a felony warrant out for his arrest for escaping community custody. Prosecutors also allege that Chambers had a firearm on his body, which he is unable to have because of previous felony convictions. Most notably, as a teen in 2008, Chambers was convicted of manslaughter in the group killing of Ed “Tuba Man” McMichael.
The “Tuba Man” was a popular Seattle fixture who often played the brass instrument throughout the city at various sporting events, festivals, and other cultural activities. Fox 13 reported that Chambers has been arrested at least eight times since the murder of McMichael. He has had at least five felonies during that stretch as well.
In 2010, Chambers served prison time after being convicted of using a fake firearm to rob a man in downtown Seattle. And in 2011, Chambers was sentenced to prison for attempted assault and hit and run after taking his vehicle and ramming it into a woman’s car after she reported him for allegedly stealing goods from her vehicle.
In 2013 — just two weeks after being released from prison — Chambers was arrested and convicted of possessing an illegal rifle after authorities caught him and some other men stealing objects from a vehicle in the Burien neighborhood of Seattle.
For those crimes, he was sentenced to six years in prison and three years supervised release, according to Komo News.
“This is your last best chance,” Judge Robert Lasnik said to him in 2013. “Please take advantage of it.”
The career criminal’s sister was confident that Chambers — who was only 20 at the time of his 2013 prison sentencing — was turning his life around.
“He’s saying things I’ve never heard him say,” she said, according to Komo News. “He’s growing into a man.”
Authorities have not said if charges will be pressed against Chambers for his latest run-in with the law.