Authorities in Blount County are searching for 16-year-old Joseph Dylan French, who’s accused of assaulting a juvenile corrections officer, stealing her gun and running away from the corrections facility in downtown Maryville.

Blount County deputies say French used a toilet lid to attack the officer, stole her gun, and shot at her but the gun did not go off.

Investigators say the gun didn’t go off because there was no bullet in the chamber but it did have a loaded magazine when French took it.

Blount County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Marian O’Briant said the officer was injured so badly, she was taken to U.T. Medical Center.

O’Briant says right now, the main concern in the public’s safety. French escaped custody just before 8 p.m. Friday and is considered armed and dangerous.

They’re not sure where he was headed and a perimeter is not set up, they’re just searching “everywhere” with help from the Knox County Sheriff’s helicopter, Maryville and Alcoa police.

He left in tan jumpsuit, and did not have on shoes. WVLT-TV