THOMASVILLE — A four-hour Grady County manhunt ended Wednesday with the inmate cornered on railroad tracks clad only in boxer shorts, officials said.

Christopher Duane Norris, 23, of Cairo, an inmate at Grady County Jail, escaped from Grady General Hospital, where he was undergoing treatment, at approximately 6:30 p.m. and was caught by 10:30 p.m.

“He was complaining that his blood sugar was really high,” Grady County Sheriff’s Office Chief Investigator Steve Clark said Thursday. “He’s a diabetic and, if he eats the wrong things, his blood sugar jumps up.”

Clark was not sure of the exact date Norris was taken to the hospital for treatment, but said the man spent at least a couple of days at the facility before making a run for it.

“We’re not sure how he got away from the guard, but he ran out of the hospital with the charge nurse and the guard chasing after him,” he said. “He was still in his jail uniform.”

911 was notified and officers responded to the scene to establish a perimeter, Clark said. Additional help arrived in the form of the K-9 unit from Decatur County and a bloodhound unit from the Apalachee Correctional Institute in Florida.

“Decatur got here first, but was not finding anything and the bloodhounds were not getting a good trail, either,” he said. “A witness called in a person matching Norris’s description in the area of 20th Street NE and the train tracks. We loaded up, went to the location but could never establish a trail. We headed back to the tracks in the area behind Harvey’s, First Avenue NE and U.S. 84 East, and began searching. We noticed something between the rails on the track that didn’t look right, shined the flashlights and it was him.”

Norris did attempt to run and, though Clark said he did not “physically fight” law enforcement, he “did not follow lawful command” and was resisting arrest. In the end, Norris had to be pepper-sprayed.

“We had him on the ground and were cuffing him when the train came along,” Clark said. “Luckily, the conductor saw what was going on and stopped the train for us. All he had on was his boxers, he dumped the uniform.”

Norris was picked up June 14 for a misdemeanor probation violation (traffic offenses) in Grady County and officials learned he also has a felony probation violation in Lowndes County.

“Once we are finished with him here he will go to Lowndes County,” Clark said. “I asked him why he ran and he told me he was ‘scared to go to Valdosta.’ We don’t know the original charge there yet.”

Norris was taken back to Grady General to finish treatment (he was never officially released), Clark said, because his blood sugar is still not under control.

“He is restrained with a guard,” he said.

Clark expected additional charges — including escape and obstruction — to be drawn on Norris.

“If you run from Grady County, we are going to catch you,” Sheriff Harry Young said Thursday. “It was a great effort of our officers, volunteers and those agencies who came to our aid.”