As he was being driven away from the Arby's restaurant, Allgier smiled briefly at a Deseret Morning News reporter.

Utah prison officials said they would be investigating if the white supremacist gang member had been plotting the escape. Recently, Allgier had fallen out of favor with fellow prison gang members and had been kept in a single cell in a maximum security unit at the Point of the Mountain.

In 2000, Allgier was convicted of forgery which landed him a jail sentence. In 2001, he was convicted of escape after failing to return to jail after being on work release, according to federal court documents.

Allgier, 27, was named as a Public Enemy No. 1 by the Salt Lake Metro Gang unit and was arrested on Nov. 4, 2006 after SWAT officers converged on the Candlewood Suites hotel in Cottonwood Heights.

At the time, Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Chris Bertram identified Allgier as a parole fugitive.

"He was armed with a handgun. He still kept the gun and tried to get away — that tells you something. He was a dangerous person," he said.

In the incident, officers evacuated the third floor and part of the second floor of the hotel, where Allgier had barricaded himself in a room. A K-9 unit was sent into the attic of the building and Allgier either fell or jumped through the ceiling, landing in a bathroom where he was arrested.

According to federal court records, Allgier on June 14 was sentenced to 104 months in prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Records say he had a 9mm high point handgun.

In a sentencing memorandum filed by Allgier's public defense attorney, it states: "Mr. Allgier was born into white supremacy." The attorney added that his family introduced him to a "criminal mindset" as a very young child.

U.S. Marshal Mike Wingert said Allgier was still in the custody of the Utah State Prison when the shooting took place, but the U.S. Bureau of Prisons had a detainer on him and were expecting an order to have him possibly moved to a federal corrections facility in Terre Haute, Ind. Allgier was expected to serve a nine-year prison sentence.

The University contracts with the state prison to treat the medical needs of inmates. Patterson said Allgier's visit today at the clinic was one of several trips he had made because of a complaint of back pain.

A safety assessment showed it was appropriate to have Allgier in a one-on-one situation with an officer, he added.

"It would appear that policy was followed," Patterson. "We are looking carefully at that to see if policies were followed and secondarily to see if they need to be modified."

Allgier's heavily tattooed face made him an infamous celebrity on multiple crime Web sites and blogs. On Friday night, MSNBC featured Allgier in a special documentary about gang-affiliated inmates in the Utah State Prison.

Today's fatal shooting of a corrections officer is the first in nearly 20 years. In 1985, a bailiff was shot and seriously wounded during an escape attempt at the Salt Lake County courthouse. In 1988, Lt. Fred House was shot and killed during a standoff with members of the Singer-Swapp polygamous family.