About 15 inmates leave the Utah State Prison daily for treatment at a University of Utah medical facility.

Monday's fatal shooting of a corrections officer during one of those trips is a first, said Scott Folsom, public safety chief for the University of Utah.

The university, by contract, treats all state prison and Salt Lake County Jail inmates.

"There have been thousands of successful incidents," Folsom said.

Police from several agencies were sifting through evidence left at the scene of the fatal shooting in an attempt to determine what happened.

Veteran corrections officer Stephen Anderson had accompanied prisoner Curtis Allgier to the University of Utah Hospital's Orthopaedic Center, 590 Wakara Way, arriving about 7 a.m. The two were alone in an examination room when the officer was shot and killed.

Investigators believe Allgier commandeered Anderson's gun, shot the officer in the head and then fled the clinic, using the same weapon to carjack a vehicle from two motorists driving by the clinic.

Utah Department of Corrections director Tom Patterson said an investigation into the shooting and the escape will include a review of the adequacy of department policies. He said whether existing policies were followed Monday is part of that investigation, as is the question of whether any policies need to change.

Anderson was the only officer overseeing Allgier under a policy that Patterson said was typically "one officer per offender." Even though Allgier had pleaded guilty in 3rd District Court previously to escape, Patterson said that since 2001, the prison had transported him for medical purposes 19 times without any problems.

Prison clinic staff evaluate inmates' medical complaints and then refer them to outside medical facilities if the needed treatment exceeds that available at the prison. Patterson said Allgier was familiar with the university orthopaedic clinic because he had been there three or four times to treat lower back pain.

Folsom said officers typically bring prisoners in and out of the U. hospital and its clinics in such a way that it minimizes their contact with other patients.

"That is easier at some facilities than others," he said.

The only way other patients or visitors would know they were in the vicinity of a prisoner would be the actual sighting of an officer accompanying someone in prison garb and handcuffs. Officers typically wear a coat and tie on this kind of duty, not a corrections uniform.

The MRI test Allgier was supposed to have Monday would have required all metal to be removed from his person, including clothing with zippers and metal handcuffs and leg restraints. Folsom said prisoners typically change out of prison garb and handcuffs after they arrive at the medical facility where they are being treated.

Police would not say Monday morning whether they knew if all prisoner-transport policies had been followed but said Allgier was not wearing handcuffs when he was arrested miles away following the high-speed chase.

Security cameras in the clinic captured images of Allgier fleeing the clinic with a gun, but there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting. Police questioned "about a half-dozen people" who had heard a gunshot and had seen Allgier leave, Folsom said.

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Contributing: Pat Reavy, Ben Winslow

E-mail: sfidel@desnews.com